Ichigo Uzumaki V 2
by Zanka no Tachi 31
Summary: Ichigo left with only his brother after the nine tails attack having failed to be compatible with the nine tails chakra for reasons unknown. His father sealed the rest of the beast within himself and died. Featuring Akatsuki Ichigo!
1. Chapter 1

(Konoha ninja academy)

Menma looked at the boy two rows down from him in the as he scrunched his face and furrowed his eyebrows his face turning red as he tried to understand what the teacher was saying and he just sighed. He didn't understand half the crap that the teacher told them either. What did the guy expect of them, fricken geniuses. All he understood was that he had chakra and he didn't know how to control it properly and that it poured out of him like an open tap running at half constantly.

His chakra pouring out was understandable, he was like a beacon in that sense. In his previous life though he wasn't sure ninjas existed which still continued to confuse him to this day, did he get moved to another dimension? Oh well, last thing he remembered was getting cero'd in the face stupidly trying to face off an adjuchas class hollow while saving a little ghost girl, at least he managed to see Ishida wipe it out before he died. Going against a hollow that powerful and being powerless happened to be one of the many stupid traits he still had with him, at least he knew his family was safe having died long before him and passed on. He'd lived a happy life and now just happened to be the spitting image he was in his previous life. Orange hair, brown eyes and a scowl on his face.

And to think that Isshin and Masaki had been crazy to call him strawberry making people think that his parents were sadistic enough to do that to their son. Well he would say that these new parents of his stepped it up a level when they named him Menma. Yes Ichigo Kurosaki was now Menma Uzumaki. And Menma was a fucking ramen condiment. What the hell was wrong with the people he grew up with? Nearly all of them were batshit crazy except for the odd one or two that happened to be somewhat normal. Well at least no one made any fun of his name anymore, at least that was a plus, but still, why a ramen condiment? He hated ramen. At least he actually took some more pride in his name when he was Ichigo because of what it meant…even though people still said strawberry.

"All right class that's it for today, practicals will be done tomorrow meaning everyone will get to face each other. No one will be teasing others for their fights if they lose and come last." The teacher dressed in shinobi gear said snapping a book shut as he looked up to the class he taught revealing his face from behind the book to be that of a young man with light brown skin and a scar across his nose. His dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail cut off just a few centimetres above the base. "Class dismissed."

"Hai Iruka-sensei." The class responded as they hurriedly packed their stuff and all rushed to the door as though Christmas was here and nearly all of them tried to squeeze through the door at the same time. After the first student managed to escape the mass of bodies the others soon followed having realised yet again that it wouldn't work if they all tried to squeeze through at the same time. They were all young so it could be excused until they were a bit older.

The only ones to not have been a part of that group were a few individuals Iruka was sure would become great shinobi someday. They were Sasuke, who happened to be opening a window instead thinking that one day he would become like his great big brother Itachi Uchiha, a prodigious young teen with the ability to go far. And that was when Sasuke dropped out of the window from the third floor landing on his feet with a cry of pain, his knees buckling from the impact. Eh…he still had a bit to go before he was anywhere near his brother.

Next was Shikamaru Nara of the Nara clan. Most lazy ass clan any village could have. They wouldn't be anywhere without the women making their husbands get off their assess to do work. They tended to be extremely bright and intelligent people although they always thought that something was a total waste of time unless it had some great importance to it. In that case it could be left until later.

"What a drag." Shikamaru said sitting to his friend Choji. Shikamaru just sat there…and did nothing.

Choji Akimichi was a strange one. He didn't seem to quite have the concentration to do what he needed to do in class like Shikamaru. He tended to watch butterflies fly by and get easily distracted by them, much like Shikamaru was distracted by clouds. He was also the next head of the Akimichi clan, not one that should be watching butterflies to pass his time by…oh well. He seemed to know what to do though when it came to completing the task at hand.

Then there was Naruto. Not the sharpest tool in the toolbox but at least he tried. His brother being one of the top in the class encouraged that. He excelled in practical's so his academics could be somewhat excused for their rather low score. That ended putting him at about half way from the bottom…or was it half way from the top, no wait it was half way. When his brother tried to help him he accepted only for the academic part of things since he thought that wasn't part of being a true ninja. The practical's always ended up with Naruto in the dirt when facing him because of that.

Naruto's brother Menma was…he was strange. He was a prodigy in the arts of taijutsu and mastered the styles taught at the academy with relative ease remembering them for later, but then he rarely ever did use a style and settled for more of a street fighting way of doing things. Ninjutsu was a mystery to him, he failed to control chakra proficiently enough to initiate a jutsu properly just like Naruto but he was persistent and ended up quickly mastering several jutsu at breakneck pace greatly surprising the instructors at the academy. Chakra training was needed for the boy and that was obvious. He wasted so much everyday it was a mystery where all the energy came from, how much did he eat?

Naruto and Menma were both sons of the deceased fourth Hokage. He would have lived if not for some abnormality in Menma preventing the man from sealing half of the nine-tailed fox in the boy. It was sad really, the man Minato Namikaze and his wife Kushina Uzumaki might have lived if that hadn't happened. Now neither boy had parents to look after them.

That was all at the moment, all of the other children were childish as they should be except for a few shy people straying behind the large group, namely Hinata Hyuga of the Hyuga clan the next head as well. Extremely shy for someone who was supposed to take up such an important role in the future but nonetheless talented and extremely clumsy at the same time.

* * *

(Apartment complex)

"Hey Naruto, you need any help with your homework?" Ichigo asked his blond haired brother who just nodded tiredly as he did at the end of every day in academy. 'It hurt his head' as he liked to say often enough. "Yeah well don't expect much, I had a hard time understanding it as well." Ichigo said pulling out a set of apartment keys and slotted them in the keyhole to the room he and his brother lived in.

Damn it was small. The tiny apartment barely counted as a living space. The kitchen was well worn and probably past it's use by date but it still functioned well enough for Ichigo to teach himself how to cook a relatively good meal. He managed to burn them enough times to learn from his mistakes. Yuzu would probably still say what he made was an abomination but he still thought it tasted pretty good compared to what his cooking used to be like.

Ichigo set down his scrolls on his bed and picked up one before reading through it to mesmerize what he and Naruto were going to go through so he could help explain things even if he didn't completely understand what came out of his brothers mouth. He still caught the general gist of it after enough times of going through it. Naruto hated theory and only tried to do it so he could keep up with his more intelligent brother. Other times he'd just run around Konoha making pranks, the latest one having been the painting of the Hokage monuments. He still had to clean them off, but that could wait until morning when the weekend started and they didn't have academy to go to.

"Hey Menma." Naruto called from the kitchen, "Sure you don't want ramen." An immediate yes was his reply. "You sure, 'cause I think this is the last of i…" Naruto trailed off "aww, its gone bad and something's been eating it."

"Told you to put it somewhere more secure where the rats wouldn't find it." Ichigo said back to Naruto who wouldn't be any wiser that it was actually Ichigo that made them go bad.

"But you wouldn't let me put it in the fridge." Naruto whined.

"It's packaged food. It doesn't need to be in the fridge, besides it looks like your finally going to have a ramen free night." Ichigo heard Naruto huff at that.

* * *

(Some time later)

"So chataras-" Naruto stopped when Ichigo moved to correct him yet again.

"Chakra, not chatara." After having said that he motioned for Naruto to continue.

"So chat- chaaaaakraaaaa is this whatsa ma call it spirit energy and our physical energy combined." Naruto repeated after Ichigo having read it to him in simpler terms so that he could understand it better.

"Basically yes." Ichigo nodded in confirmation before looking at the clock. It was ten thirty. Probably time they went to sleep otherwise Naruto won't be awake in time to clean the Hokage monument. "It's time to stop for now, you need to be able to clean the monument by tomorrow if you don't want to be told to do more chores free of charge."

Naruto looked at the clock as well confirming that it was in fact time for them to go to bed. Ichigo used to never go to sleep straight away, he tossed and turned in his bed before falling asleep and then sometimes cried in his sleep. In the morning he'd wake up and pretend nothing had ever happened even though he'd been approached by Sarutobi the current hokage (having been pulled back into duty as the third after the fourth died) several times, the anbu having reported his sleeping patterns to the old man as they continued to watch over the two boys. However the sleeping patterns had long since stopped Ichigo no longer having these dreams that caused his reckless sleep. Naruto was the main observation target though as he was the one with the nine-tails sealed inside of him and needed protection from any enemies from other nations if they tried to take him.

Ichigo knew that they were there. He could sense their presence but never their chakra, god he sucked at sensing chakra. But then again no one really knew how to in the elemental nations except for the few rare gifted people with natural sensory abilities. Far less people than what he was accustomed to. It only made his job as being a ninja and stealth master all the easier as he had been slightly trained in the stealth force by recommendation of Yoruichi, well not really recommendation, more like she forced him to. For some reason he thought that the stealth commander had a crush on him of sorts when he arrived because he thought she wasn't training him quite the same as the rest of the squad. But then again it might be his imagination and Yoruichi asked her to.

"Night." Ichigo said to Naruto who in return said the same to Ichigo only adding 'Menma' to the end.

* * *

NOTE: Relatively short chapter as an introduction for this remake of the story. This chapter wasn't really supposed to go anywhere in particular apart from explaining who Ichigo is in this story, stating about whether his parents were alive or not. In this version Ichigo most likely won't retain his fullbring powers, soul reaper powers included. I don't really think it suits the Naruto verse even though his fullbring is the most ninja like weapon Ichigo has in bleach. He might retain his inner hollow however but either has yet to be still decided.

P.S I thought I'd put this one chapter up to see how you guys liked it. Please review and tell me how I could possibly make it better. Thanks


	2. Chapter 2

I know I said that I would wait until I had the next five or so chapters before I posted them to bring it up to the old stories time line but I kinda thought screw it and posted the next chapter anyway.

So here you are. Please review once you've finished reading.

* * *

A short black haired girl stood at the front entrance to the villiage hidden in the leaves, two Jonin standing beside her and just smirked a little when she looked at all the hidden anbu ninjas that stood in the shadows their chakra signatures giving themselves away no matter how hard they tried to suppress them. They didn't know she could see them but they knew who she was. She supposedly was a little girl that had been found wandering the forests in the land of fire, her parents having supposedly died when they tried to protect her from nuke-nin. These particular nin were from the land of wind and due to the alliance agreement between the two villages, the hidden sand village and the hidden leaf village, ninjas from the leaf had been notified to take care of these nin.

* * *

FLASH BACK

On their way back to the village having killed the missing nin the two Jonin leaf shinobi had noticed telltale signs that the two people that had been killed by the nin weren't the only ones that were there and that someone had in fact escaped with an unusually high level of stealth. Only slight changes to the earth such as a little bit of unground earth were found that could have easily been passed off as animal tracks. However as being the nin of Konoha they had to make sure that there wasn't any escaped nuke-nin and followed these slight telltale signs of tracks left in the earth.

When they found the one who made the tracks though they were extremely surprised to find a little girl tired and hungry from the running she had been doing for the past two days that it took for the nin of Konoha to catch up to her. It only took this long due to the small tracks that the girl had left behind and this was understandable when they took in her appearance. She must have been extremely light and that would have prevented any proper tracks from making themselves visible to the untrained eye. To say that the Konoha shinobi were surprised was to say the least. The girl that was in front of them was quite something to have been able to evade the two Jonin that were tracking her for the past few days.

When the two shinobi first approached her she had been afraid and cowered leaning up against a tree that she was sitting next to. However what came next when she closed her eyes waiting for her final moments was a surprise to her. Instead of being killed like her two parents she was picked up from the ground, an arm supporting her back and the other holding up her legs. Much to her surprise they took care of her and slowed their trip back to Konoha slightly even if it meant being a little late back to allow her to recover and come to terms with her parents death. What the two shinobi didn't know was that this little girl had already lived one lifetime and was back from the dead so to speak and had already dealt with the death of close people even if this event still affected her just as much as then she recovered a lot faster than expected.

FLASH BACK END

* * *

The two Jonin ushered the little girl forwards and she complied following the one that lead the way as they moved towards the Hokage tower that stood at the back of the village, being close to the mountain that was used for the Hokage faces. The little girl felt surprised that she would be coming to a hidden village and could possibly become a ninja herself having wanted to become one most of her childhood. Her parents were strictly against this though not knowing what they would do if their only child were to die while out on a mission or protecting the village.

The little girl although much to the dismay of her parents had trained herself instead of becoming a ninja of a village, keeping to her parent's wishes. This had changed now though because they were dead and she wasn't strong enough to push off a few chunin ranked ninja, she was barely any stronger than any other ninja her age. She felt as though a change of plans were in order and was going to become a ninja of the village she was now in.

The little girl looked around continuing to soak in her surroundings and commit them to memory when she saw a head of orange with an all too familiar face scolding a blonde haired boy next to him. The face of one person that was hard to forget especially when in her previous life she had had a crush on this particular person, although as to whether or not it was the same person was another thing altogether. She'd find out later anyway was the thought she held as she continued to follow the two ninja to the Hokage tower with a barely noticeable blush on her face.

* * *

(Hokage office)

"…So you thought because you found this girl by herself you'd bring her back to the village as a potential ninja?" Sarutobi asked the two Jonin standing in front of him, one looking a little sheepish as he scratched the back of his head while his only visible eye closed, the headband covering his other.

"Yeah, hehehe." Kakashi laughed quietly.

"The first mission I send you on when you aren't doing work in anbu and you bring a child back." Sarutobi looked down at his desk as he sighed a little. "Very well bring her in." Sarutobi motioned for someone to open the door to allow the little girl who had been waiting outside patiently on one of the chairs provided while idly swinging her legs back and forth being too short to reach the ground while seated.

"This is her." The other Jonin Asuma said as he stood there cigarette in hand blowing out a breath of smoke.

"Please get rid of that while there is a child in the room." Sarutobi said almost tiredly to his son not even bothering to try and remember the amount of times he's already said the same thing to the man. "So," Sarutobi said turning to the little girl who only stood at about waist height of Kakashi, "how old are you?"

"Six." Said the little girl answering the question as soon as it came out of the old man's mouth.

"Hmm." Sarutobi hummed in thought as he looked over the girl in front of him wondering as to whether or not he should put her into the ninja academy. Her tiny body making her look fragile and harmless were factors he shouldn't be too worried about but still played at the back of his mind trying to influence his decision. Finally making up his mind he asked the girl a question. "How would you like to become a ninja?"

"Yes." Was the immediate answer that came out of the little girls mouth. It was a little unexpected of the rooms current occupants but Hiruzen was glad he didn't deny the girl outright of making her own decision.

"Well then I give you either the choice of going into this years class and having to catch up or wait until next year. Which will it be?" Hiruzen asked the still unnamed little girl.

"This years." Was the yet again immediate reply.

"Very well." Hiruzen said and then grumbled something about paperwork for having new villagers. "Now all that's left is for you to tell us your name."

"My name is Shaolin Feng." Shaolin answered wondering if the old man was going to give his name to her.

"Well it's nice to meet you. My name's Hiruzen Sarutobi. Kakashi here will show you to the place you will stay." Hiruzen said pointing to the man beside Shaolin who seemed to be looking up in confusion from a book he was currently reading obviously not believing he heard the words he thought he heard. "Put that book away. It isn't appropriate for children to see it."

When Shaolin saw the title she was slightly disgusted with the man that was going to show her to her new home and looked at him with a frown while waiting for the man to lead the way. She obviously knew about the book and wasn't all too pleased that the man was reading a type of book that she had expected her old and now probably dead Fuku-Taicho to read. Yipee.

* * *

"Here," Kakashi said stopping outside an apartment block giving Shaolin the keys to the room she would be staying in, "your room should be in this building here somewhere." Kakashi paused in thought for a moment for some unknown reason before looking back at the little girl who had yet to stop frowning at him and raised an eyebrow. "What's your problem?" Kakashi said raising an eyebrow obviously confused as to why the little girl was giving him the expression.

"Your filthy." Shaolin said turning around in a huff walking into the apartment complex.

Kakashi just stood there for a solid minute trying to convince himself that the little girl hadn't just said what he thought she said. No, she couldn't possibly know what he was reading…could she?

Kakashi's thoughts stopped there however as Shaolin exited the apartment complex and walked past him, obviously having ignored him. She walked towards the shopping district where she would need to buy things if she were to go the night without starving. She also silently hoped that she'd run into the orange haired boy she saw earlier.

* * *

(Some time later)

Much to Shaolin's dismay she didn't run into the orange haired boy. However if her thoughts were correct she knew she'd run into him tomorrow at the ninja academy, his will to protect to great to pass off the opportunity to become stronger. The one thought that seemed to pass through her mind the most though was, would she be in the same class as him?

Shaolin continued to think about this all while cooking her own meal with her limited experience cooking for her family on rare occasion when she wanted to help and learn for herself. After all she needed to know how to make her own food to survive and it was only logical. Her cooking skill however was terrible, and even if the food she made was edible there wasn't much taste to it. She might have to resort to prepackaged meals if she doesn't learn soon, just to prevent her from accidentally killing herself.

* * *

(Next day)

Shaolin walked to the ninja academy the next day, map in hand. She hoped it was something like the shinigami academy and they did practical's most of the time because what was theory if you didn't know how to use it properly. Although the main reason of hers for wanting to do practical's is because the hand-to-hand combat would probably be her favourite subject amongst the entire curriculum.

Feeling a hand tap on her shoulder she spun around and looked into the eyes of the orange haired boy yesterday. Ichigo looked at her and saw an almost exact replica of the second squad captain. The same navy blue hair braided in two strands down her back and the rest cut short halfway down her neck except for the hair that framed her face, which only stretched just down past her chin. She wore black pants and sandals, the pants being somewhat similar to the shihakusho she wore during her time as a shinigami Taicho, just without the gap in the side exposing her thighs. Her shirt was covered in a yellow and black pattern.

"Ichigo?" Shaolin said and saw the boys eyes widen slightly. She went to say more but was silenced when he placed a hand over her mouth and shook his head drawing confusion from the surrounding adults who were taking their children to the academy.

"Not anymore Soi Fon." Ichigo whispered back to her confirming that he was in fact the person she thought he was. The same boy that had barely any control over his power that leaked continuously into the surrounding environment.

Shaolin reached up and pulled away the hand that was still covering her mouth much to Ichigo's embarrassment having forgotten what he was doing. "My name's actually Shaolin Feng. It was just changed to that when I entered onmitsukido."

"So no new n…" Ichigo trailed off looking around him realising that they had stopped walking. "We should finish this later. Oh and my name's Menma Uzumaki." Ichigo heard a snicker come from the usually emotionless person. Perhaps having a family that cared for her changed that. "Hey no laughing." Menma crossed his arms scowling at Shaolin.

"First it was strawberry and now you're a ramen condiment." Shaolin laughed. "Didn't you hate ramen?"

Menma's eye twitched, "We'll talk later." He ground out as he turned and continued walking up to the academy gates. Shaolin however caught up and walked at his pace beside him.

"Who was the blonde kid yesterday?" Shaolin said dropping the previous subject.

"I now have a brother." Menma said slightly shocking the girl next to him as they entered the academy gates. "He's not that smart either, so I have to do most of the stuff that's too stressing for him, like not getting ripped off at the shops."

Revalation aside Shaolin asked another question to which Ichigo just smirked. "What are we doing today you ask? Well today we're doing practical's, which mainly involves fighting in hand-to-hand combat. I'm sure you'll beat everyone except me."

"Challenge accepted." Shaolin said smirking.

* * *

(Academy classroom)

"Alright class!" Iruka said raising his voice just managing to make the class go quiet as they sat in their chairs chattering amongst each other. Iruka thought it was strange that he didn't have to raise his voice as much but shrugged it off as he continued to speak to the class. "Today we have a new addition to the class. You may come in now." Iruka said and watched as the door slid open.

The entire class watched in a silence that Iruka wasn't accustomed to and could only hope that it stayed like this. In came a little girl that was slightly shorter than a majority of the class and stood in the centre at the front of the room, her eyes quickly surveying all of the children in front of her. She smiled a little when she saw Menma seated close to the back with an empty space on all sides of him, the other students obviously not liking him or were too scared for some reason or another.

"My name is Shaolin Feng. It's nice to meet you." Shaolin said. What came next surprised everyone a little as she partially bowed in front of the class and walked up to sit next to Menma when she was told to find a seat.

"I thought you said we were doing practical's today." Shaolin whispered obviously annoyed that they were already outside so she could assess herself against the other students.

"Yeah, I did say that," Menma rolled his eyes thinking it was obvious, "but we've gotta have roll call and introduce you to the class before then." Menma explained looking around at the other students who looked a little wary of the new student thinking that she was brave to sit next to the orange haired boy. It had also probably killed most of her chances to make friends out of some of the people that didn't like Menma particularly due to his strength and abilities to beat up the bullies that scoured the streets with ease. Some of them could probably do the same but they didn't want to take their chances.

"I think you just butchered your reputation." Menma said drawing a slightly confused look from Shaolin as she turned her head to face him. Menma saw this and sighed a little, "Never mind. Come on we're going for the practical's now." Menma stood up and walked out into the aisle and towards the door.

"Shaolin," Iruka called out which she turned to and listened, "you don't have to participate if you don't want to, after all bei-" Iruka was cut off before he could finish

"I'll be joining in. There's no need to hold back." Shaolin said walking out the classroom door following after Menma.

* * *

(Outside practical)

"And now we have Sakura Haruno and Shaolin Feng." Iruka said looking at the marking board he held. Iruka held pen at the ready to mark the children's skills in taijutsu hoping that Sakura would ease off of her strength if only a little as she was probably one of the strongest girls currently in the academy.

Shaolin saw Sakura smirk a little when she heard that she was called to go against the newbie thinking that she could win. Together the two stepped inside the area in which they'd been given to spar and faced each other, Shaolin having a false sense of insecurity show making Sakura believe all the more that she would win.

"Begin." Iruka said and watched as Sakura dashed forward as fast as her small legs could carry her and went for a straight punch at Shaolin's face to force her out straight away. She didn't believe her eyes however when her fist was used as the momentum to flip her over the other girls shoulder and fall face flat into the ground, an audible crunch being made notifying all the others of Sakura's now broken nose.

"The winner is Shaolin." Iruka said as he filled in the recording sheet a little shocked as to how fast the fight ended. Looking around up from the sheet he could see all of the other students thinking the same thing…Wait, no, Menma wasn't shocked at all. He looked perfectly calm and even seemed to be smiling a little as he watched Sakura pull herself off of the ground her nose bloody. He was obviously pleased that the new girl had won, but for what reason?

Iruka shook his head to clear himself of the thoughts and continued down the list onto the next pair to face each other. "Naruto Uzu.,,Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha." IRuka frowned when he read the name. He could have sworn that he marked the little brat as absent, having to clean the Hokage faces of the new paint job they'd received from him. "Actually, Naruto isn't here so onto the next fight…"

* * *

(End of academy day)

"So," Menma said walking next to Shaolin, the day at the academy having ended, "what do you think of the academy?"

"Unbearably easy. Pity I didn't get to fight you though. Why didn't you tell me it was like that?" Shaolin replied in a bored tone wondering just how the students were going to kill people if they kept them acting like kids all the time. The poor kids would die the minute they stepped into a fight to the death if they didn't learn how to kill. Then again, the skill at which the children handled things greatly varied from ok by standards that Shaolin expected of their age and pathetic. She expected that most of them wouldn't even graduate.

"That boring huh." Menma said arms behind his head, as he looked skyward, not paying attention to the path he was walking as he just listened to Shaolin's footsteps as hard as they were to hear to walk beside her. "Well maybe sometime then we could have a sparing session. They didn't exactly allow the boys to go against the girls at the academy until we're a little older even as stupid as that is. They need the experience and they don't have it."

"I agree, and yes, I'd like to have a sparing match sometime. Perhaps we could have minimal attendance to the academy and train between ourselves and get notes off of your brother." Shaolin said stopping suddenly and looking to her left where Menma stood and the direction of her apartment.

"Ahh that might not be such a good idea. He has a nack of not attending either." Menma laughed sheepishly scratching the back of his head while now looking at Shaolin who had her arms crossed and a slight frown adorning her face. "Although I suppose we could do self study and just learn all the stuff at a library or something."

"Yes that sounds good." Shaolin agreed. "Well for now, good bye, this is my stop." As she said that she walked past Menma, a growing blush on her face as she realised about all the time she and Menma would be spending together.

"See ya." Menma waved and left to go home to see whether or not Naruto had gotten in trouble for anymore pranks.


	3. Chapter 3

To Menma's surprise he saw Naruto working diligently in the apartment trying to read a scroll that was in all senses far too advanced for a mind like his. His face was red. It was almost suspicious as to how he was acting, doing his work without Menma's help? That didn't happen often, and when it did it was often a sign that Naruto was trying to distract him from what he had done.

"Naruto," at hearing Menma's voice Naruto froze and turned around scratching the back of his head sheepishly, "what did you do this time?"

"Nothing! I swear!" Naruto yelled waving his arms in front of his face afraid of what his brother might do to him despite the fact that the worst Menma had ever given him was a headlock. Nevertheless Naruto stood and slowly inched his way towards the window behind him.

"If you didn't do anything why are you trying to run away?" Menma questioned watching the growing fear grow on Naruto's face. Menma froze in thought for a second and glanced around the room looking around to see if he'd stolen anything perverted from the nearby store again trying to perfect his so called sexy-jutsu by looking at the image material that was obviously way to mature for a kid of his age to look at. There…under the scroll he was 'reading'. Naruto really needed to learn how to hide things better. "What's this?" Menma said lifting the magazine up by it's corner and saw the front cover, a woman in an erotic pose dressed in skimpy swimwear.

"It's not what it looks like." Naruto screamed shoving the window open and going to jump out of the apartment. Unfortunately for Naruto though he was caught by his right foot and dragged back in through the window and wasn't seen for the rest of the night by the surrounding neighborhood much to their pleasure and sanity.

* * *

"Ahh, Naruto how nice to see you today." Iruka stood before Naruto at the classroom entrance who fidgeted nervously for some unknown reason. One could only assume that Menma brought Naruto back into line yet again if only for a short amount of time. Naruto really did live up to the meaning of stupidity, to try the same thing again and again and expecting different results. "You wouldn't happen to know where your brother is now would you?" Iruka continued now smiling at Naruto in a way that proved to be painful as Naruto began to sweat under his teachers gaze.

"He said he's not coming in today," Naruto answered quickly, "and he said he wouldn't be coming in for most of the rest of academy." Naruto looked at Iruka's face, which appeared to be in deep thought and decided that now was the best time to move around his teacher and find his seat before any further questions were asked.

_"Minimal attendance?"_ Iruka thought, the words played over in his head for a while not realising how much time was actually passing. He was too deep in thought to notice the first few nudges in his back coming from one of the students in his class but when he did the little blonde haired girl just looked a little curiously at her sensei before retreating back to her desk only to go back to whether or not she or her friend should be sitting next to the Uchiha boy, Sasuke.

_"Well, whatever Menma's doing it won't be messing around like Naruto. At least I can rest easy knowing that he isn't the prankster and the troublemaker is here at school."_ Iruka thought as he readied himself in front of the class and delved into yet another class of explaining chakra properties.

* * *

"Where are we?" Shaolin asked Menma as she looked at the forest behind the wire fence clearly having a warning sign in front of it stating that the forest to some extent was dangerous to them, especially in their childlike forms.

"Ahhhhhh, I believe this would be the forest known by many as the forest of death." Menma said in a tone that showed that he didn't quite believe in the dangers that lurked inside the forest. He stood on the right side of Shaolin looking into the shadows of the forest trying to spot any dangers that could possibly be there. Finding none he began to walk forward and jumped the fence.

Shaolin's eyes widened when she saw Menma jump the fence and raced to the fence although not jumping it herself. "What are you doing?!" Shaolin yelled. "What if we were found? Or we ended up going in there and dying because we weren't ready to go in yet?"

"Don't worry," Ichigo waved a hand and rolled his eyes when he faced Shaolin, her face going slightly red with anger at the way he was behaving and ignoring her, "the worst we'll get is a slightly harder than normal pat to the back, although I can't say the same for you, shoving us along on our way. Besides, most of the townspeople are too afraid to come anywhere near here anyway so security is lax." Menma shrugged.

"What do you mean, 'although you can't say the same for me'?" Shaolin asked curiously although not sure she wanted to hear the answer as Menma gained a large grin and looked at her mischievously.

"The old man has a way with little girls." Menma grinned evilly. He cracked up laughing as soon as he saw the shock on Shaolin's face, her mouth agape, face white, and her eyes threatening to role to the back of her head as her vision became spotted black for a second as she almost fainted.

Upon realising that Menma was laughing his ass off and probably gaining unwanted attention from within the forest Shaolin jumped over the fence and punched him in the face knocking him back onto his back.

"What was that for?!" Menma cried in shock his right hand cupping his now swelling red right cheek while his eyes slightly teared up, he supported himself on his left elbow while lying down on his back. Menma began to crawl back instantly as he saw the furious look on Shaolin's face afraid of what she might do to him while she began her approach.

"You were making fun of me." Shaolin growled as she lifted Menma up by the collar of his shirt. "And we are not going in there!" Shaolin motioned in towards the forests depths. "Now come on." Shaolin dragged Menma by his collar towards the fence and she let go to jump over. Menma just followed her afraid of what might ensue if he didn't.

"I was telling a half truth." Menma said from behind Shaolin who was walking further away from the forest to gain distance between them as well as Menma. She stopped however when she heard this and turned around to face Menma. "The old man has a scrying orb that he supposedly uses to 'look over the citizens of Konoha', but Naruto and I know he uses it to watch the girls in the public baths. You can see the guilt on his face when you say it to him. He tries to deny it."

"Filthy." Shaolin seethed quietly crossing her arms in thought of the disgusting yet somehow kind man she'd spoken to not just two days ago.

"I'm sure that you're going to think that about a few people." Menma muttered under his breath having heard what Shaolin said about Hiruzen. "Perhaps somewhere else for training then?" Menma asked.

"No. Not today. We'll find a different place tomorrow. For now we'll just train here." Shaolin said, her mood recovering. "We'll start with a simple spar at first to see whether or not you've forgotten anything about fighting properly while against those little children. After that, we'll just do fitness training for some time until we want to see how far we've progressed."

"Alright then. Let's begin." Menma said and charged forward instantly and stopping just before Shaolin his right fist out behind him already swinging forwards with the momentum of his run to strengthen it.

Shaolin just anticipated this and moved to her right a little in a slight skip kicking off of the ground with her left foot and connected with Menma's gut. Menma however had already realised the carelessness of his move and had already tensed for impact to lighten the load. When the hit connected Menma let out a slight grunt and was pushed back a metre or so.

Shaolin finished her spin landing with her back facing Menma and jumped forwards at feeling Menma move in to strike again. Turning around Shaolin found herself having dodged another punch, this time from Menma's left fist. Menma didn't stop there however as he jumped forwards with his right leg raised to the side to come around and strike Shaolin on her unguarded left side. Shaolin's side didn't remain unguarded for long enough though for Menma to get through as she raised both of her arms to prevent the kick from hitting her in a cross like block with both of her arms.

When Menma landed he shot out with his left fist again to hopefully hit Shaolin this time. Shaolin however was already moving her arms back while he landed and his punch was slightly redirected having instead of hitting Shaolin's arm dead on, grazed by and managed to strike shaolin in the left side if only barely. It was enough however as it seemed his hit had caused some pain to be inflicted on Shaolin who grunted a little in response.

Shaolin took advantage of Menma's closeness and grabbed his arm and pulled him in kneeing him in the chest and then elbowed him in the back when he hunched over effectively knocking him towards the ground. Menma stretched out his right arm to stop himself from falling all of the way and pushed off of the ground in such a way that it caused him to move away and place himself back onto his feet a few metres away from Shaolin.

"Hmm, not bad." Shaolin mused quietly crouching in a low stance preparing for Menma to come forwards again but was mildly surprised when he flashed from view and appeared behind her coming around with a kick at her left side. Shaolin went even lower in her stance and managed to avoid the kick by mere millimetres while spinning on the ball of her foot and launching upwards with her own kick to Menma's head.

Menma bent forwards to avoid the foot coming for his head and went to grab her leg with his left arm as it was still extended upwards. Menma caught the foot and spun Shaolin out behind him with enough force to send her tumbling a few metres through the long grass. Menma waited for Shaolin to get back up and strike again but was rather surprised when Shaolin didn't get back up and continued to lie down on the grass. Did he kick her too hard? Unlikely considering it was Shaolin he was fighting.

"That'll be enough for now." Shaolin said still lying down. "Even though it was a short fight, barley classifying as a spar, it enabled me to see how skilled you are at the moment. You certainly haven't lost your touch. That movement you used was shunpo, I hadn't realised we could still use it." Shaolin continued.

"Yeah I can see how that was all we needed for now." Menma realised when he thought about all the movements he had used to combat wit shaolin. He was also slightly tired from the power he had used behind the attacks and the concentration he had needed to do everything he had. His shunpo was also draining since it was performed in a human body and it required just that bit more energy to move his physical body. "I discovered I could use shunpo by accident and the thought had actually been plaguing my mind for a bit, so when I tried it again after chasing my brother down I found it actually takes a bit more effort to use than before. I don't use it all that often because of this."

"I see…well then when we meet up again for proper training I expect that we try get back up to our old speed, not that it'll be even remotely possible but we can still try." Shaolin said standing up finally and turning to face Ichigo.

"What? Are we not continuing anymore today?" Menma asked slightly confused. Wasn't that what they were supposed to be doing? Training.

"No we're not." Shaolin answered with what seemed to be a straight face that was slowly gaining a slight blush to it when she began to speak again. "I thought that because I've only been in the village for a day you could show me around. Let me familiarize myself with the things here." Shaolin said now looking down at her feet, something Menma thought was uncharacteristic with her since he remembered her being a brutal captain of the second division, but time changes things and people so it was possible.

"Ok then, let's get going." Menma said and flashed out of view to shorten the amount of time to get back to the village. He was closely followed behind Shaolin as she stumbled a bit after initiating her first shunpo in the tiny human body, having been used to that level of movement in her fully grown form.

* * *

(Hours later)

"…and that's the hokage tower. The old man works there and doesn't get to see others much since he's either using his peeping device, doing paperwork, or spending time with his family. When he does come out he's generally going to visit the academy or out on business. He probably does go out more often but I'm either not around or I don't notice which is highly probable." Menma stated the last building he and Shaolin had yet to talk about in the large village of Konoha.

"Tsk, how are you supposed to become a ninja, who use stealth mind you, if you can't even sense the enemy approaching?" Shaolin asked raising an eyebrow while still looking at the building in front of her slightly reminded of what Ichigo had told her.

"Most ninja can't sense chakra." Ichigo stated answering Shaolin's question somewhat. "Those that can tend not to be very good fighters so I think I'm pretty safe when it comes to leaking chakra all over the place even though I still need to get a grip on it. But then again if a someone is close enough and you're releasing just enough chakra, even those that aren't sensors will be able to feel the chakra in the air."

"So that makes me some sort of super soldier then?" Shaolin smirked to herself crossing her arms since she was not only able to fight competently but also sense chakra signatures. Shaolin huffed slightly at the ninja's inability to sense chakra, seriously what were they then? Ninja's according to her should be able to detect the enemies position at all times.

"Not quite." Menma responded turning around and heading back in the direction they came from, Shaolin doing the same when she noticed him leaving. "There are a few others that are capable of the same thing. The Hyuga's have an ability to increase their ocular capacity to see chakra and almost all of them are capable of sensing it to an extent since their fighting style requires extremely high control and sensing the emission points on your body, namely the chakra points."

"Well. Thank you for your tour around Konoha." Shaolin said stopping to face Menma who did the same wondering why she stopped. "But I think that's enough for today since it's beginning to get dark, I'll see you tomorrow." Shaolin said and began walking away in the direction of her apartment but was surprised to find Menma walking along side her. She looked at him with a confused expression, which Menma noticed.

"What? You expect me to let a little girl walk home by herself while it's getting dark." Menma said with a slightly teasing voice to which Shaolin huffed and sped up her walking pace to get away from him. She became slightly annoyed when Menma caught up but relented and allowed him to follow.


	4. Chapter 4

(Training grounds)

"Get up." Shaolin commanded. Looking down on Menma's prone form.

"I can't." Menma groaned as he lay on the ground panting. "You know you're gonna stunt my growth if you make me wear this all the time."

Curse Shaolin's training. All Menma could do was take small measly steps with the amount of weight she'd placed on him. According to Shaolin he was building up strength and speed. How the hell was he supposed to go anywhere in training if he wasn't able to do anything? She had not only given him leg weights but a weighted vest and arm weights as well.

"Heh," Shaolin huffed turning her head to face over her shoulder, "you should be able to carry those weights with ease if you knew how to control your chakra properly."

"Well I don't, and I'm not exactly in my fully grown body either. Now take of the ones on my arms so I can at least push myself up." Menma roared trying to push himself off the ground and into a sitting position but failed miserably when he only managed to get a few centimetres off the ground before collapsing into a heap again.

"Fine, I'll take them off you for now. You managed to last one minute before collapsing. I expect more next time." Shaolin looked at Menma sternly in the eye only to get a groan in response. Shaolin unclasped the weights causing Menma to shoot up and tackle Shaolin to the ground and restrain her while he reached out for the weights he had been wearing. "What are you doing?" Shaolin yelled kicking and screaming as a child would do while struggling to resist Menma while he pinned her to the ground.

"Showing you what it's like to have weights strapped to your entire body you slave driver." Menma answered having already somehow attached the leg weights to Shaolin without suffering many kicks to the face. "We aren't fucking shinigami anymore Shaolin. Our bodies are obviously not as strong as a shinigami's would be. Do you honestly expect us two humans," Menma said exaggerating the word human, "at the age of six capable of lifting twice our own body weight?" Menma said finally causing Shaolin to stop resisting as he clasped the last arm weight to her.

"Tsunade did it." Shaolin said quietly.

"What? Who?" Menma said raising an eyebrow wondering who the hell Shaolin was talking about. "Ah who cares. Two words, chakra control. And you know how much I suck at it." Menma sighed while running a hand down his face getting off of Shaolin not having bothered to strap the weighted vest onto Shaolin allowing her some movement.

"If you suck so much then try climbing the tree over there without your hands and I'll prove you wrong." Shaolin said defiantly unclipping the weights and standing up to her full height arms crossed as she stared at Menma.

"That's different."

"How?"

"It just is. I can send and concentrate a little chakra at my feet. Whoop-dee-doo." Menma said with a slight tone of annoyance at Shaolin's persistence.

"That shows that you at least have some control." Shaolin replied appearing unfazed by Menma's rudeness. "Now all you need to do is improve it. You can still bulk up muscle if that's what you're worried about. Now we're finished for the day." Shaolin said with a slightly disappointed tone to her voice.

"What ever. I'm going to go work on something anyway." Menma said turning around and walking off, away from the training grounds that they had decided to use.

* * *

(Nighttime: Menma/Naruto's apartment)

"…Seals, seals, seals," Menma repeated to himself as he looked through the various sealing scrolls before him while he sat in his apartment that would possibly help out with his little problem, the problem being his chakra leakage. Now if he could just find a solution it just might help. "Damn it!" Menma shouted throwing the scrolls into the air around him. "Where the hell am I supposed to find something to help me?" Menma threw himself onto his back and stared at the ceiling not sure of what to do.

It was then that something seemed to pick up the wind in the enclosed environment of the apartment but disappeared just as quickly as it came confusing Menma greatly as he sat back up looking around only catching a glimpse of black clothing flutter past his window as the moonlight shone throughout the night.

Menma sighed and began looking again when something caught his eye causing slight interest that only grew when he finally saw what was written on the scroll. "Hm, not quite what I was looking for, but it's probably ten times better. Now if I combine this with…"

* * *

(Next day)

Menma sat in the open clearing that he and Shaolin had decided to make their training grounds. Fortunately the grounds weren't currently in use by any other squads and hadn't been for quite some time, so it was safe for now. Right now his appearance seemed unchanged, at least from behind. If one were to see him standing they would see a noticeable difference in his appearance. His upper forearms now sported black X like markings that wrapped around on both sides. On his hands there were four elongated diamond shaped black marks that extended from his wrist to his knuckles along the bone line. His legs were the same, having black X shaped markings on his calves and shins. Although his chest was covered by his shirt he also had another large black X there on his chest.

"Since when were you so good at suppressing your chakra?" a childlike voice sounded out from within the midst of some trees. The persons voice was revealed to be Shaolin's as she stepped out into the clearing.

"Since last night." Menma replied with a slight grin as he turned his head to look her in the eyes with a grin. Menma stood and revealed the markings on his body to Shaolin whose eyes widened slightly in comprehension of what Menma had done to himself. "I thought to myself, well if I suck so much at chakra control and I'm leaking it all the time why not store the excess somewhere so I can use it when I'm low on energy or further increase the power of my attacks." Menma explained. "Basically it's gonna supercharge my taijutsu and act as chakra capacitors at the same time. The ones on my forearms are more used for blocking stuff since I found out chakra can be used to harden the skin and bone like an arrancar's heirro. Normally that would cause massive fatigue and even death from having to sustain it but I figured that I just let out so much chakra that it won't really be a problem especially since the technique will only activate in battle."

"You sure put a lot of thought into this." Shaolin said with a slightly raised eyebrow containing her shock at the genius of Menma's idea. "The hardening of the skin though, is that limited to just the parts where the markings are?"

"No, it's just slightly stronger." Menma answered her question. "Although I'm not sure who but someone dumped this scroll in my room last night and that was all that I needed to get the idea. In another one that I read it said that some old lady called Tsunade Senju used a similar technique to store her chakra in a single point, her forehead for later use." Menma said pointing to the centre of his fore head, just slightly above the point between his eyebrows.

"I see." Shaolin closed her eyes in thought for a moment before opening them again. "Does this at all help with your chakra control?" Shaolin asked hoping for the answer to be a solid yes.

"Maybe…at least until the tattoos are full of chakra. When that happens the chakra will start leaking again although not as much as before as it will be suppressed by the natural qualities of the seals."

"Teach me." Shaolin demanded staring Menma hard in the eyes.

"Oh my, what is this I hear? The great Shaolin asking for help from me." Ichigo pointed at himself innocently earning a growl from Shaolin. "Ok, ok. Don't get your panties in a twist, a bit of humor won't do any harm."

"After yesterdays display I still expect an apology." Shaolin growled.

"Fine, whatever I did I'm sorry. Now here's what you do."

* * *

(six years later)

Menma and Shaolin walked into the classroom that had been their class's place of learning for the past few years. For these two it was easy to pass the exam they had been given for the final test and go on the road to become genin. All they had to do was perform three basic jutsu and know the basic criteria of the way things work in the ways of chakra, not much, and probably not quite enough for anything harder than lost and found jobs as the kids had never killed before. The two had gained the highest marks in the class much to the distaste of Sasuke Uchiha. The two now wore their village headbands wrapped around their upper left arm.

The boy had suffered a rather vital blow to his mind and emotions when his entire clan was massacred leaving only him alive. The reason, it was his brother that had done it and he spared his brother so that he may become stronger. Sasuke now had unrivaled hate towards the man he once called his brother. His emotions had become suppressed and he no longer interacted with his peers unless he had to or had a reason to (more often then not insulting Naruto), nothing more nothing less.

The boy now sat brooding at the back of the room with no one sitting next to him because he wished to be alone and all of his fangirls complied not wanting to anger their Sasuke-kun. Well whatever was left of the girls that is, namely Sakura, a pink haired girl that was a loud mouth and extremely annoying, and Ino, a blond who was just as much of a loud mouth as Sakura although usually only when it came to Sasuke and fighting the billboard brow as she had so dubbed Sakura for her impressively large forehead.

Menma had undergone some growth throughout the last six years of attending academy now standing at around four and a half feet. So had Shaolin, and now stood just past Menma's shoulder height. Menma's brother Naruto was the same height as Shaolin much to his displeasure of being so short. He had wanted to be as tall or taller than Menma but it turned out that his growth rate had really slowed down. Menma thought it might have to do with all the ramen Naruto ate instead of proper food even though he had tried to get Naruto to eat something other than ramen. Naruto though was completely against this idea and said that ramen couldn't possibly stunt his growth, as it was his favourite food. Poor Naruto, when would he get it through his thick skull? Ramen isn't a healthy source of nutrition that supports growth. Eh, who cares?

Shaolin herself like Menma now sported some black tattoo like marking on her arms. They took the appearance of arrow like markings on top and underneath her upper forearms that seemed to bite into each other as they didn't over lap and the backs of each arrow were seemingly removed snuggly fitting in the next successive arrow tip in behind the one in front without overlapping. There were eight of them all up on each arm making it sixteen in total. A yellow like glow that seemed to come off of the fully charged markings then outlined the arrows.

Menma's tattoos had unexpectedly changed as well from their usual black X's to a thin film that seemed to rise up out of his skin by less than a millimetre. There also seemed to be some kind of white crystalline growth just slightly inwards from the edge of the X's, which had a dark blue outlining that seemed to be reminiscent of extremely dense chakra if one were to know what chakra looked like in it's physical form.

As the class sat now they were all talking amongst each other trying to figure out among themselves as to who would be on which team. The only problem though was that the class seemed to be missing one member as the current numbers in the class didn't fit into what would be considered complete genin squads. Although, who were they to deny the decisions of the instructors.

"Hey Menma." Naruto called out from his seated position in the rows of desks smiling idiotically as he usually did causing Menma to sigh and face palm.

"Shut up dobe. Your voice is painful." Sasuke said coolly causing Sakura and Ino to gain love hearts in their eyes. They too hated Naruto and thought that it was the best thing for their Sasuke-kun to feel the same.

_"Not this again."_ Were Menma and Shaolin's thoughts as they went to their places in the classroom.

Some time later the class quieted down in anticipation as Iruka came into the classroom, noteboard in hand with several sheets of test marks and scores, but most importantly the teams that each and every one of the rooms occupants minus Iruka would be assigned to for possibly the rest of their ninja careers.

"As your instructor for the past six years in…" Iruka began only for half the class to zone out.

_"Not this shit again. I've already gone through one lifetimes graduation."_ Menma thought to himself as he slumped in his seat and supported his head in his right plam, his elbow on the desk while his mind idly went through all the boring crap his genin squad would have to do before they became chunin.

"…M…ma…MENMA!" Iruka roared finally catching the orange haired boy's attention who had instantly jumped out of his seat in shock only to have his legs catch on the desk he was sitting behind causing them to crack and splinter somewhat and pivot him forwards and fall face flat on his desk. Iruka sighed at the sight, after all it wasn't the first time he'd caught the boy spacing out in class when uninterested with the current matters in the class. Although he thought Menma would've at least paid more attention to when his team was being called out.

"As I was saying Menma, your team will be consisting of three individuals." Iruka said managing to make Menma raise an eyebrow in wonder at who the mystery members of his group would be. "The members are you Menma, Shaolin Feng, and Hinata Hyuga. You would already know this if you hadn't been dozing off in the middle of class. Your instructor is…" Iruka began and the rest was lost to Menma as he didn't quite think he heard that correctly.

"Excuse me," Menma blinked, "could you repeat that please, I don't think I heard you correctly."

"Oh, so you've heard of the guy then, he creeps kids out to no end I swear, although the guy's a genius albeit a little insane. Your instructors name is Urahara Keisuke." Iruka said although time seemed to slow down and the words sounded more like a slur to Menma as he refused to believe that that certain man was going to be his teacher once again.

Menma promptly fainted as had Shaolin a few moments before as she had heard Iruka the first time, although more because of sheer disgust and horror than anything else.

"Um…uhhh…Iruka-sensei," Hinata spoke quietly as she now stood next to the spot where they were seated, "what should I do?" Hinata paused for a moment before correcting herself, "About Menma-kun and Shaolin-chan I mean."

"Just leave them for now. When your instructor arrives wake them up if they haven't already." Iruka said brushing them off carelessly and going on to resume telling the class the squad selections.

"Well then," a voice rang out from the room entrance, "I dare say that you'll have to wake them right away Hinata-san."

Everyone turned their heads and blinked at the man who stood at the door a little confused from his appearance. He wore a bucket hat covering most of his blonde hair. A small fringe that overshadowed his eyes while the rest stuck out under the brim of the hat he wore. He had his headband hung loosely around his neck.

"You do know that you're early." Iruka said with a slightly annoyed tone to his voice looking over having stopped halfway through the next teams set of arrangements.

"Better than late." Urahara spoke cheerfully as he walked over to the unresponsive genin whom Hinata had tried to wake for the past few moments her new sensei had been standing in the room. Reaching out to grab the two they immediately shot up and jumped away prepared to attack greatly surprising the rest of the rooms occupants. "Don't worry now. Come along." Urahara said whipping out a fan and going through the door but not before saying, "meet me on the roof in five."

* * *

NOTE: team pairing, because I can and cause I'm sure Urahara can rid her of some of that fear Hinata has. The rest of the other genin teams will be the normal ones

NOTE 2: Changed the age at which they found Shaolin because it I realized it didn't fit the timeline I wanted to put her in. So in chapter two instead of being nine she'll be six


	5. Chapter 5

Menma sat bored atop the rooftop of the academy looking at Urahara who was grinning stupidly at Menma and the rest of his squad causing Shaolin to twitch in anger and Hinata to fidget with her hands while looking down at her feet only looking up and around every few moments to only look back at her feet showing her rather nervous behavior.

"Well then," Urahara said in a happy tone so suddenly it caused Hinata to squeak a little and look up at Urahara who never got rid of the smile on his face only to further scare the girl, "I think we can introduce ourselves now, we'll start with you berry-kun." Urahara looked to his left towards the orange haired boy.

Menma twitched at his old nickname being brought to light, however it only served to further confuse Hinata as she tried to figure out what in the world they were talking about. Shaolin however only let out a slightly amused snicker even though she was still waiting until she could give the perverted man a proper beating.

"My name is Menma Uzumaki, that is all you need to know for now." Menma stated clearly not in the mood to converse with the man who was to be his sensei.

"Oh I think you'll find that there is more to say later," Urahara said cheerfully waving a fan in front of his face, "however on to the next one then if that is all there is to say for now. If the nervous wreck would now please introduce herself." Urahara spoke while turning his head to face towards Hinata who sat on the opposite end of the small group of genin.

"My name is Hinata Hyuga. I would not like to disappoint my father by failing to become a great kunoichi." Hinata said her words so quietly that the others had a little trouble hearing her.

"Well then Hinata-san," Urahara responded almost too cheerfully and then tilted his head so that his hat overshadowed his eyes instead of just a little bit of his forehead, "I can see why they gave you to me now." Before Hinata could reply though to ask why she had been placed in the team she was in Urahara continued on. "Now, you," Urahara pointed with the tip of his closed fan after snapping it shut, "little bee." He said cheerfully having angled his head back up so it was no longer covered by the shadow as much

"I hardly see the point in replying as you already know who I am." Shaolin crossed her arms and turned her head to the side in a huff trying to be as rude and disrespectful as she could. However Urahara already suspected something like this would be coming from her and chuckled slightly to himself all the while grinning. "What are you laughing at?" Shaolin barked turning back to glare at Urahara.

_"Just the way they were before."_ Urahara thought all the while grinning to himself. _"Although those markings they have on their body's. I didn't quite expect Ichigo…err Menma to get that from the scroll I gave him six years ago. The scroll I gave him had instructions on creating a seal that would have similar effects to that of captain Zaraki's eye patch. There were some other protective seals that were in it as well but that doesn't quite explain the power that those bands he's wearing radiates. He must have modified it somehow through a spurt of genius, like myself, and used it to store chakra and strengthen his body and attacks at the same time. By releasing the seals the markings will possibly dissolve and immediately give a massive power boost, at least in theory."_ Urahara analysed having unconsciously moved the hand that wasn't holding his fan to rub at the stubble on his chin while in thought "Oh nothing that concerns you." Urahara waved dismissingly.

"It does concern me you perverted man, you were looking at me while you laughed." Shaolin accused pointing her finger at the man.

Hinata sat silently as she watched them banter like old friends all the while deeply confused as to how such a relationship occurred between them. Had they known each other previously? If so why did they act like they hated each other? Or was it just like this from the start? Hinata didn't know but she began to think that it just might be a little fun having strange friends like these.

By now Shaolin was running across the rooftop after Urahara and Menma just sat in the same spot just a little over from Hinata just idly enjoying the show letting out a sound of amusement every now and then when Shaolin seemed to have gotten to the man only to fall for one of his tricks and be back at square one all over again. Looking to his left he saw that Hinata was somewhat confused as to why Shaolin was screaming bloody murder to their instructor and chuckled a little gaining Hinata's attention. "Don't worry, no ones gonna get hurt anytime soon. Shaolin just doesn't put up with the guy very well. Especially since he's been evading us al these years." Menma whispered the last part to himself, to quiet to be heard by anyone else.

Hinata nodded at Menma's explanation and turned back to the scene still unfolding before her wondering if they were going to progress any further than today.

* * *

(Back in the classroom after team arrangements)

A woman with red eyes and black messy hair that fell down to her waist walked into the classroom of genin ready to pick up her charge, having memorized the faces of the kids she was supposed to take with her. Kiba Inazuka, Shino Aburame and…that was it? Wasn't there supposed to be three genin assigned to each squad? Where was the little terrified girl she was supposed to be taking with her?

"Hmm." The woman hummed in thought turning back around her red mid thigh, dress like attire that was covered in white bandage like cloth with a black pattern on it, going tight at the sudden movement, the elastic in the clothing allowing her to take larger steps than in a normal dress.

Walking back out of the classroom and down the hall to the staff room she opened the door and peered inside to see if any of the academy's current instructors were there to explain the mishap. Sure enough Iruka was sitting at his desk filling out paperwork that was scattered in one corner at the back and stacked neatly at the front.

Iruka just looked up and turned when he heard light footsteps approach from behind himself to find one of the Jonin instructors standing patiently waiting for him to finish the sheet he was filling out before asking any questions. "Hold up just a sec." Iruka said as he turned back around signing off a the bottom left hand corner for what seemed to be the paperwork on the traitor Mizuki who had up until recently, worked at the ninja academy. Turning back around after a moment Iruka spoke, "Can I help you Kurenai-san?"

"Yes, I was wondering, shouldn't there be a third Genin in my group? I only saw two in the classroom. I came here to check because last I heard that Urahara guy was the one taking only two Genin." Kurenai stated in a slightly confused voice.

"Ah, that one." Iruka realized what she meant. "Well you see it was actually only changed in the past few days. While the specific people who had been selected for your squad were all trackers and was a team made for that sole purpose. It was deemed that the Hyuga's Kekkei genkai was to be used in Urahara's genin squad for unknown reasons, although I have a feeling it may have to do with the confidence levels that she has more than anything else. The Hyuga clan is also pressing that she earn Chunin rank within her first year of being a ninja."

"And I was deemed to not be enough to allow her strength to grow and give her the confidence needed?" Kurenai narrowed her eyes a little, "That man will end up hurting her more than she has to be."

Iruka just sighed and shook his head, closing his eyes, placing a hand behind it to scratch his head while in thought. Opening his eyes and stopping his head while bringing his hand down to his side Iruka replied in the best way he thought possible, "Yeah, maybe, but in the end, I think it was just down to who they thought could get it done faster. Besides if she can pass his final test to allow them to become genin she should have more than enough confidence to clear her goals as a ninja and overcome the challenge of her achieving Chunin rank this upcoming exams."

"That man's test is no test a Genin should be facing," Kurenai raised her voice a little, "especially one like Hinata, she's not ready yet. The other two were given to him for a reason. She might only end up feeling more depressed having team mates that are stronger than her and when she see's it she'll feel useless."

"Don't worry. It was decided that even if Hinata and the two others couldn't pass the test they'd be considered Genin anyway and given another instructor to go under…although I think it was Anko who volunteered to take Menma and Shaolin as strange as it is for her to take an apprentice let alone two." Iruka shivered at the though of leaving children in her care. "You would have it as it was set before, receive Hinata and take her as your Genin."

"They'd better all pass otherwise I'm gonna kick Urahara's ass for screwing over his students." Kurenai finished and walked out of the room leaving Iruka to contemplate on whether or not it really was a good idea to leave those children under Urahara's care.

* * *

(Back on the academy rooftop)

"Well," Urahara giggled childishly, "since our bundle of joy," he pointed at the decked Shaolin who panted heavily having just chased Urahara with no luck of catching him, "is all tired out I can explain what we're going to be doing for your final test. Isn't this exciting."

"Oh joy." Menma groaned.

"Do not complain so much I-Menma-san." Urahara said exasperatedly waving his fan in Menma's direction after having almost tripped up and said Menma's past name. "Your going to need to clear the next ten days in your schedule and meet in training ground two, for squad two, us." Urahara waved too excitedly for Menma's tastes as he noticeably began twitching from preventing himself from trying to pummel the man who was making an idiot of himself, probably making up for all the time he missed in the passed few years.

"You are now dismissed for the rest of the day. However you should probably hang out a bit today before tomorrow to get to know each other better. After all you are going to be on the same team for some time now…ah, Menma, Shaolin I need to talk to you two in private for a moment concerning something rather important." Urahara said beckoning them over to him. "Hinata-san, if you'd so kindly wait for a moment." Urahara said waiting for acknowledgement from Hinata before moving to the other end of the rooftop that was guarded from prying eyes from the shrubbery that grew in the small roof garden followed by Menma and the now recovered Shaolin.

"So." Urahara said seriously turning around to face them after having led them to the other side of the roof. Menma and Shaolin as expected turned serious as well waiting for what Urahara had to tell them, only to have a look of exasperation when a huge grin broke out on Urahara's face. "How have you been?"

"You drag us over here to say that?!" Menma roared aiming to elbow Urahara in the face only to have him lean backwards and bring his right foot around and behind him to allow the elbow to sail harmlessly past his face much to his pleasure. No more broken noses thank you very much. He'd learnt that much when he was a candy storeowner.

"Can't an old friend say hi?" Urahara asked innocently once again flapping his fan in front of his face concealing a grin.

"Of coarse. But why didn't you do it sooner?" Menma asked.

"Why I thought it best you two grew up getting to know each other. Especially with that secret cr-" Urahara began but was cut short by a fist from Shaolin to the face silencing him as he let out a pained groan and went to cup his nose as blood began to freely pour from it after Shaolin's fist had moved back to her side, confident that Urahara had been silenced for now. "No need to be so mean Shaolin-chan." Urahara whined.

"Did you actually call us over here for something at all?" Shaolin asked impatiently as she began tapping her foot on the ground arms crossed again.

"Of course I did." Urahara pulled a scroll out of the flack jacket he wore and presented a sealing scroll. "Having been equipped with weapons of comfort and ones that felt natural to yourself in your past life, I decided that before I came here I'd have something made for the both of you. Both weapons however are scaled to the exact same size that you used when you were fully grown so some slight difficulties may present themselves at first." Urahara finished with unsealing two objects from the scroll he held.

An obsidian blade with a chain dangling out of the end of the hilt was presented to Menma. There were three prongs coming out the backside of the blade and an opening in the blade that began at the hilt and extended about a third of the way up the blade, the blade finished with a curved tip at the end that bent back slightly the third prong on the blade just slightly behind the tip, the other two below it spaced apart by the same distance. The blade came up to Menma's shoulder in height. The hit was also wrapped in black cloth with a little red diamond like pattern coming up the sides. In all it reminded Menma of what his bankai blade use to look like.

Shaolin gingerly grabbed hers from the grinning man before her and began to inspect the weapon when nothing happened. It looked like an ordinary gauntlet except for the fact that only her middle finger would be encased in the stinger like metal encasing. There was also a small chain attaching the finger and main part of the gauntlet together. The gauntlet extended about three quarters up the way of her arm but allowed movement in her wrist due to the gaps between the two pieces, the guard, and the gauntlet.

When both were done analyzing their new weapons they turned back to Urahara a little shocked and perplexed as to why he was giving them these weapons besides the intention being rather obvious, they just couldn't believe that the man would do something for them unless it at least assisted him a little or was ordered from higher ups to give them such things.

"Unfortunately those weapons are nothing like zanpakuto. Zanpakuto don't exist in this world as I'm sure you should have been able to figure out from the fact that if there was you should have at least seen a Shinigami or Hollow by now." Urahara said not quite answering the question they were going to ask.

"So we really are in another dimension then." Menma concluded to himself silently, he himself having pondered the thought for some time and come to the conclusion. He just wanted someone else to say the same so he could be sure.

"Those weapons however are made of an extremely valuable metal that conducts chakra far better than any regular kunai, shuriken or other material. Colours mainly come in silver like tones depending on purity of the metal, but it turns out as I have found that some impurities actually provide some minute increases in other stats, which don't really do anything, for the weapons allowing me to change the colour and make them as close as possible to the actual weapon you wielded when we were Shinigami." Urahara explained, "A black smith did most of the work though." Urahara whispered disappointedly having only been there to make sure the weapons were made to perfection.

"The reason for me giving you these gifts is…a get together celebration for having finally found someone you know from your past life!" Urahara said raising his hands in the air dramatically, while raising his voice slightly. "I hope you brought gifts, 'cause I brought mine…"

Menma and Shaolin snorted at the thought of bringing Urahara gifts to give away the thought that they didn't care. Although deep inside themselves, they were actually thinking about it. What to do? Get Urahara a gift? Maybe. They'd have to think about it first though.

"Sorry we don't have one." Menma said apologetically, seriously thinking about getting Urahara something. Although with the pay Urahara received it shouldn't be a problem to get it himself. Greedy bastard.

"Awww." Urahara whined and then brightened up suddenly with a positive look on his face. "Oh well, I'm sure you'll get me something eventually. Now lets get back to our other team member, Hinata-san, shall we?" Urahara said rhetorically and twirled a little to face the direction in which he wished to walk before heading of leaving two dumbfounded children behind him wondering how he changed demeanor so quickly.

* * *

(Few hours later, shopping district)

The small team of Genin that consisted of Menma, Shaolin and Hinata had all spent the rest of the day together getting to know each other better despite not being able to get Hinata interact much due to her shy nature and quietness of her voice. Over all not much progress was made between the three except Menma and Shaolin who had already known each other for quite some time.

Right now Menma was heading back to the small apartment he shared with his brother when he came across a ninja tool store and remembered that Urahara hadn't exactly given him a sheath for his blade. Looking at the black blade he held in his left hand, the blade facing behind him, the chain jingled as though in consent telling him to get a sheath lest he accidentally harm his friends with it. Wondering as to whether or not the store would have a sheath that would fit his blade he entered the store despite it being close to closing time.

* * *

The sound of the door chimes echoed throughout the relatively vacant ninja tool store alerting Tenten to a customer that had come for merchandise. She sighed and looked at the clock on the wall noting that it was ten to five. Just about time to close up shop. Whoever it was would be the last customer that day, the training her sensei had put her through was insane and had almost completely drained her. At the moment the only tasks she was capable of were menial at best due to her aching muscles.

"Hello." A voice called out.

Tenten turned her head when she heard a scuffling noise and turned her head behind her to see her father walking down the hallway, the doors to his side as he walked down the hallway clearly labeled with weapon storage, from the kitchen where he was undoubtedly helping her mother prepare for dinner…no that wasn't quite right, it might be more like he was trying to learn how not to burn food in case her mother was out on a ladies night again. The last time that happened the food had been less than tasteful, so now he was trying to learn how in case he ever had to cook for himself again.

"Go back inside Tenten." Her father ushered completely aware of how tired she would be due to her ninja training and preparation for this years Chunin exams. "I'll handle this. Hopefully it'll be the last one for today and we can close up shop for today."

"Yeah, ok." Tenten replied taking a deep breath and letting out a sigh before turning towards where her father had come from and heading to the lounge area near the kitchen to settle down a bit.

* * *

"Hello." Menma called out and walked to the front counter where he awaited for the owner of the store to come out and see if they could help him with his request.

Several moments later Menma was going to call out again but heard someone coming from behind the door at the front counter. As the door opened out stepped a middle aged man stepped through and saw Menma. Walking over to the counter at a leisurely pace he asked "What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering whether you had any sheaths or if it would be possible to order a sheath for this blade. If so I would like to buy or order one." Menma said to the main holding the blade up for him to see it.

"This is a wonderful blade you have here. A bit big for you though don't you think?" the man asked Menma but just shook his head and smiled a little before chuckling to himself. "My daughter would have a fit if she saw someone with such a beautiful blade and didn't get to at least hold it." The man said more to himself but to Menma as well drawing a slightl smile to his face. "Well I can't say that we do have any sheaths for that blade because normally the blade comes with the sheath when bought or gained, so any spare sheaths we have lying around simply won't do, especially for a blade like that one. I'll place in an order for you and it should be back within a week, two tops. First though I'll need to take some measurements so I can get the sheath right for you."

"Of course." Menma nodded and waited patiently for the man to take the measurements of the blade before returning it to him. "I'll be back in ten days, so if the sheath comes back before then could you hold onto it until then?" Menma asked and received a nod in return before he walked out the store entrance and left to go home.

* * *

Thanks for reading and please review


	6. Chapter 6

Menma was just outside the door to the apartment he lived in when he heard someone grumbling on the other side of the door. No doubt it was Naruto because he didn't quite get the team he would like to be in.

Stepping forward Menma opened the door and walked in and headed straight to the kitchen where he suspected or rather heard where Naruto was at the moment. "Uhh…" was all Menma said before trailing off seeing Naruto in the middle of a pile of empty ramen packets, his stomach bulging from what he could only assume was where the ramen now was. What was wrong with him? He probably finished a weeks worth of ramen in a single sitting.

"Naruto." Menma called out softly and was only met with the reply of soft snores coming from the boy on the floor. "I'll just leave him there then. He can wake up with back and neck pains in the morning for not going to bed properly." Menma said to himelf before stepping over Naruto and fixing himself something to eat and prepare for tomorrow.

* * *

(Some time during the middle of the night)

"AHHHH!" Naruto screamed bolting upright into a sitting position. "That dream was so, so…weird." Naruto said to himself after a moment of realising he was on the kitchen floor.

Naruto looked at the empty packets of ramen around him before letting out a shriek jumping up and backing himself up against the wall as though he were trying to push himself into it, his hands at his sides feeling out the wall as he slowly edged himself away from the kitchen and towards his bedroom.

"I am not having ramen again for a while no matter how much I like it." Naruto mumbled slumping into his bed while groaning. Turning his head to the side he looked at the clock besied his bed checking the time and noted that it was actually only an hour before he had to wake up and get ready for his first training session with his squad and new sensei.

His sensei to say the least seemed disappointing if only due to the fact that he seems like the person that'll be there hours later than the stated time. However he wouldn't know for sure until he arrived at his first training session and waited for his teammates to get there.

* * *

(Morning. 7:00)

Menma yawned as he walked through the streets of Konoha towards the direction in which his new training grounds would be found just outside the village gates. He hadn't exactly gotten much sleep the night before due to Naruto waking up so suddenly and screaming only to then mutter something about Ramen. Seriously! The only thing he can think about is Ramen? Well whatever, that didn't matter at the moment because by the time Menma had gotten up to get ready for his first day as either training or working together in a squad, Naruto had already left grumbling something about not being able to have breakfast before diving into the cupboard and eating anyway.

"Hi Menma." Shaolin's voice called out from down a side street, which she walked through to get to him. "You've been trained by Urahara before?" Shaolin asked getting a lazy nod in return while Menma's eyes drooped a little, the effects of sleep still lingering. "What's he like then?"

"In short he'll say, 'I'm going to run after you and try to kill you. It's your job to survive until the time limit is up.' Probably something like that." Menma said shrugging his shoulders. "I hope you prepared yourself with the necessary supplies because I sure did and I'm not handing out unless I think I can afford to."

"I did prepare, although I don't really think you'd leave Hinata and myself to fend for ourselves. It's not in your nature." Shaolin countered turning her head to look at his face before looking up ahead towards the eastern gates of Konoha where she saw Hinata standing and waiting for them. They then left as a team towards their destination of the hellish squad two training grounds where they all awaited for the exam Urahara was going to put them through.

* * *

(Training grounds)

As the trio approached the grounds they noticed it was certainly very patchy. Patchy in the sense that there were very few places to hide and when there was it wasn't a very large area to be in. The trees were very spread out leaving only a few clusters here and there, leaving large wide-open areas in the centre of the training grounds. Boulders littered the training grounds much like when Urahara was a candy storeowner and had a large basement under his house/store. In fact if it weren't for the trees and the grass Menma would say it was almost a complete replica minus the four walls and ceiling.

"Well hello there." A jeery voice was let out from behind the three as they stepped into the middle of an opening. Turning around the three looked up and sure enough there he was. Sitting atop a large rock was Urahara looking down upon them, a large grin on his face. "How are you all this fine morning? I hope you've prepared yourselves. Your one simple task is to take my hat. You have until sundown." Urahara said motioning towards the bucket hat on his head. "Any questions?"

"Didn't you say we'd be here for ten days? What are the remaining nine for?" Shaolin asked.

"Ah, that is because by the end of today you will potentially all be on my team and we should dive head first into training. Think of this as your first session."

"I don't suppose I could just ask you for the hat?" Menma said offhandedly holding out his hand as though expecting Urahara to just hand it over, although some would be able to see him tensed and ready just in case, others, relaxed and careless.

Urahara just chuckled in response. "No, I don't think I will, but nice try Menma-kun. If that is all I will give you a minute to hide and we can begin."

At that instant Menma and Shaolin vanished a small cloud of dust coming just halfway up Hinata's calves having signaled their leaving. Hinata's eyes widened slightly in response to seeing her teammates leave and took no longer than that to run as well to prepare against their sensei. Shouldn't they be using teamwork though?

* * *

Urahara hummed to himself slightly as he was still perched atop the rock he had looked down upon his new students from, watching them leave. Menma and Shaolin had certainly been working on their speed and strength for the past few years and refined their chakra control greatly, even Menma now had the chakra signature no bigger than that of a small animal even though it flickered every now and then still showing signs of control problems, in other words he was hard to find. Nevertheless Urahara could still find him if he focused and in the end would end up easily finding him once he had a lock on.

Shaolin was even further refined in chakra control than Menma was and barely even registered in Urahara's chakra senses, the only reason of him still being able to sense it was the intermittent small pulses that she let of as though using sonar to detect her surroundings, clever, although not good enough.

Lastly Hinata, her speed was definitely greater than that of an average Genin but she was still far slower than the other two. Her chakra control however due to the Hyuga clan's teachings were extremely refined although it seemed that they didn't have the idea of suppressing their signatures quite down pat, probably thinking that it was impossible to erase the signature completely as their kekei genkai relied on chakra release. Another thing he had seen from the start was that she lacked confidence. That was probably her greatest downfall, if she was too afraid the enemy would take control of her flaw and use it against her.

The seconds quickly ticked by and Urahara rose to his feet before taking off in the direction of Menma who to his surprise was just standing out in the open just before the rocky landscape behind him with his blade stabbed into the ground beside him. Not wasting any time Urahara bolted over at a fairly reasonable speed to which Menma reacted gripping the blades hilt and drawing it out of the ground slightly before flicking it upwards towards Urahara aiming for his shoulder while kicking up a large cloud of dust at the same time completely obscuring him.

Urahara deftly leant to his left avoiding the incoming blade on his right and planted his hand on the ground while kicking off with his feet, spinning around to kick Menma who simply jumped back into the dust cloud he created avoiding the kick just missing the sight of Urahara cutting his unused right palm with his nails in a clenched fist while grinning. Thin red lines trailed out from his palm and cut through the cloud bisecting it revealing there to be no Menma but the reminiscent smoke cloud of a shadow clone that gets destroyed.

Urahara frowned in response pushing himself off of his palm and onto is feet and scanned the surrounding rocky landscape expecting Menma to jump out now he'd seen his little skill of manipulating his blood. He had to come up for an ability to remind him of his zanpakuto did he not, Benehime or the crimson princess.

The strange thing Urahara noticed now or what he should have noticed before although not exactly expecting it because Menma wasn't exactly known for his planning was that there were now absolutely no prescence of Menma in the nearby vicinity. Rather he was quite far away and closer to Shaolin and…Hinata. They actually were teaming up against him. He half expected them to try and defeat him by themselves.

Reaching out again to get a lock on the small group of Genin he noticed that they had split up yet again but were all headed in the same general direction, towards him. They felt strong and confident, although Hinata was still hesitant in her movement she kept moving. He'll wait for now to what they do.

* * *

(Some hours later)

Shaolin sprinted to the right of Urahara deciding to take him on from the side with her gauntlet on her right arm, the eight tattoos with a slight yellow glow to them as one began to dissolve and disappear, the glowing colour having transferred to her gauntlet, the charge being held in place by her forceful control. Shaolin dove into the valleys of rocks switching from her blurred running speed to an even higher level with shunpo not staying in one spot any longer than a mere fraction of a second even if she couldn't keep it up for long.

Catching a glimpse of the man standing idly prepared amongst the labyrinth of rocks she went just a little further before launching towards his back stabbing at his back fully aware and prepared that he might use the red wires Menma had told herself and Hinata about. To her surprise however this was not the case and cursed silently for not having noticed his figure missing it's shadow and slipped right through him unable to see for a moment due to the small optical interference of the clone. That was all she needed though to fall right into the trap Urahara had set up and fell right into the pit that simply appeared before her obviously having been hidden by genjutsu.

The charge that was still in her gauntlet however was used as the necessary force to propel her out of harms way as she ejected all the chakra in a shotgun like spread through the palm of the gauntlet. Flipping through the air and landing on her feet in a crouch while leaning forward before taking off in a run again reaching out with her senses to find Urahara. Hinata showed in her senses as well as Urahara.

Shaolin headed throughout the maze once again and reached open space where she spied Hinata, whom appeared to be injured due to her slightly hunched stance and the wheezing of her breaths while taking on Urahara by herself using her clans specialized taijutsu to aim for Urahara's chakra points. An effort was given on her part however futile as Urahara batted aside her incoming strikes with ease even though he seemed to be being pushed back as he made small steps turning side on whenever Hinata struck forwards, a faint aura of blue showing in thin short spikes as chakra was expelled from her finger tips.

Shaolin glanced at her burnt palm due to the large chakra expulsion she had so close to her palm and growled slightly releasing yet another seal but rather instead of using it in her gauntlet, she used it to boost her own abilities and managed to make the ground crack slightly from the pressure she suddenly applied through her feet. As she dashed forwards she cocked her left arm back.

Urahara glanced out of the corner of his eye seeing the light of the setting sun glint off of Shaolin's gauntlet and let a droplet of blood flow out of his right palm to the tip of his index finger where it stayed until he avoided yet another one of Hinata's strikes.

Hinata had seen Shaolin coming with the use of her byakugan even though there wasn't really any time to look to other places and kept going to try and distract Urahara. The distraction of Shaolin though had proven to be costly as Urahara had seen it and caught her off guard somehow and struck her midsection, no doubt leaving a bruise of a relatively large size, while pushing her back and left her slightly hunched over as she tried to continue her barrage as to try and prove that she wasn't weak. It was a miracle she was still competent enough to move really, especially after her first clash.

* * *

FLASH BACK

Hinata hid in a small cluster of trees listening for the footsteps of her mentor as he approached from behind her. At the moment though her hiding skills were almost useless as she tried to gulp in deep breaths of air. She didn't even know if she was actually fighting her sensei at the moment because every time she struck him he simply didn't even flinch when hit. Eventually she ended up running away only to be pursued at an even pace.

Activating her byakugan Hinata saw that Urahara was indeed still approaching her even though it was only at walking pace. Releasing the chakra flow to her byakugan Hinata continued to listen to Urahara's footsteps as he approached until they simply vanished. Confused Hinata dared to sneak a peek by stepping out into the open and looking around the tree only to find no Urahara there. That was str-

What was this warm wet feeling that she felt running down her back and front? Looking down she found the answer as a hand protruded from her gut, the fingers and thumb tucked together to a point for greater piercing power.

For a moment it didn't seem to register in her mind since it felt painless but once she did she let out a gurgled scream and dropped to her knees clutching at the now open wound feebly, the hand of her mentor having been retracted. Toppling over completely Hinata shivered slightly before she felt a different set of hands sitting her up straight.

"…ou ok?"

Looking to the sound of the voice she found Menma there holding onto her. Confused she looked down again to find there to be no wound in her gut or spine, just the fabric of her clothing in her hands as they grasped at where the supposed wound was. Genjutsu?

"Hey, Hinata! Are you ok?" Menma said again a little more forcefully this time shaking her shoulders a little to try and stimulate some form of response to come from the girl.

Hinata once again looked up at Menma and nodded but still sat still as his arms held her up. Why did it feel so real? There was pain, blood and…and a great big hole in her gut. Finally deciding to completely come to Hinata got out of Ichigo's grasp and stood to her feet awkwardly, wobbling a little, her hand still subconsciously pressed against her abdomen.

"Th-thank you Menma-san." Hinata spoke quietly, some part of her still off and wandering even though she'd pulled herself together enough to speak coherently and move about.

Menma stood watching her progress and asked her a question, "Was it Urahara?" he said sounding more like he already knew who it was than needing an answer. Receiving yet another nod in reply Menma hesitantly headed off in the direction he sensed someone else's presence to be in hoping it to be Urahara's.

FLASH BACK END

* * *

Urahara grabbed Hinata's right arm as he stepped back and around with his right foot dragging Hinata along as she stumbled unprepared for what Urahara was about to do. Urahara brought his right arm from his left side from where it stayed as he prepared to strike, and flung upwards hardening the blood in the shape of a senbon while he finished bringing Hinata around as a shield, her eyes widening in horror as she realised this.

The blood red senbon shot forwards on an intercept course and pierced Shaolin's right shoulder and went straight through and out the other side while striking the nerves in her arm disabling it completely, or at least until it was brought to medical attention. Shaolin was too slow however to be able to bring her arm back from having launched it forwards and leaping at the same time to apply that little bit extra force to the punch.

Hinata couldn't budge, Urahara having already used an earth jutsu to seal her feet to the ground and left the two to themselves as Shaolin's fist plowed into Hinata's gut as bones clearly made crunching noises making blood dribble out of the corner of her mouth and cough a little before collapsing into Shaolin's arms. Shaolin held her still for a little before launching off into a large cluster of trees while holding onto Hinata, taking her to safety.

* * *

Menma skirted across a small clearing having heard the fight between Hinata, Shaolin and Urahara. He himself would have gone to help them had he not been stuck in a small earth trap Urahara had set up and caught him in. He could have taken Menma out but he left to take care of Hinata, just after he'd already used a genjutsu on her as well. Why? He probably wanted to see if she was good enough to take under his tutelage. He was most likely already decided in taking both himself and Shaolin as his Genin and wanted to make sure that Hinata was up to it…well, that she had the talent at least, as well as the will to use it for the right purposes even under the strain of this fight.

It was obvious that they couldn't win, at least not yet, not without the right training, but soon they would. Shaolin and himself had been training far harder than anyone at the academy, especially since they had minimal attendance to use for their training as well pretty much giving them enough time to already be of Chunin level. It tended to happen if you trained for six years, even if you were a child.

As Menma neared the place where Hinata had been struck down he slowed to a stop when he felt a gust of wind fly past him. Turning around ever so slowly he saw as clear as day Urahara standing there, a red glinting blade flashing in his right hand.

"Ah, Menma-san, how nice it is to see you, hm." Urahara said as he began to twirl the red blade in his hand casually while approaching Menma. "I must say that I'm rather surprised that Hinata-san has kept herself together as much as she has, it probably has something to do about not wanting to fail her peers, namely you and Shaolin-san. After all you two have been combating me without even batting an eye. She probably saw that and felt she needed to do the same."

"I think you've gone a little over the top with her, don't you think?" Menma said crouching low with his right foot behind him and his bladde pointing forwards while in his right hand.

"Maybe, maybe not. It all has to do with perspective. After all the first training session I ever gave you I tried to kill you albeit while at the same level of strength. I just took out some of the killing and added in a few illusions as substitutes."

"Fine, but she better be ok." Menma muttered to himself before launching into a shunpo to catch Urahara off guard. Reappearing behind Urahara and bringing his blade down for an overhead strike he noticed that there was a slight glow emanating off the red blade as it came up for an intercept course and stopped the black blade a few centimetres away from his head.

Urahara pushed up on his blade pushing away Menma while releasing a bit of chakra at the same time to give him that little extra push to send him tumbling away and slam into a rock but not before he was back on his feet again minimizing the damage caused. Urahara then ran forwards at an almost casual pace before slicing upwards from his right and across his body unleashing a red wave of energy that shot off like a cannon colliding with Menma, or so he thought.

Once again Menma had avoided death by using a substitution jutsu replacing himself with a log and moving away and behind Urahara yet again to attempt another strike from behind. However Urahara had interpreted what he was doing and appeared before him and lashed out with his red blade attempting to eviscerate Menma. To his pleasure though Menma blocked with his own blade charging it with chakra that sparked blue and orange much to the surprise of Urahara who seemed to be the only one to have noticed as Menma's attention was yet to be deterred from the fight at hand.

Menma pushed with a mighty roar and released all the pent up energy in the blade letting a flame with a dark blue hue fly off in the shape of a crescent moon as Urahara attempted to flee from the increasing power in the blade. The attack would have surely hurt him had it been concentrated and strong enough as the flames died out after ten metres allowing the air to spark with the sounds of static as electricity was discharged into the air causing t to smell of ozone.

Urahara stood in his place having measured the range of the attack and allowed his eyes to drift upwards to where his hat was alight with a small blue flame that ate away at his hat turning it to ash. Quickly yanking it of Urahara put it on the ground before using a simple earth jutsu to cover the hat with dirt and extinguish the flames. He was stumped at his carelessness though as Menma collapsed with his hand outstretched and dug into the dirt gripping onto the hat and mumbling weakly.

"I win."

Urahara looked up and saw that Menma unfortunately hadn't won as the sun had set and now only and orange hue was in the sky notifying him of the late time it was. Chuckling slightly Urahara spoke, "You were close but you didn't quite make it." Urahara's eyes narrowed in confusion when he looked back down to Menma, he could have sworn he just felt what seemed to be hollow reiryoku coming from him for just a split second, but that should be impossible. Hollows and shinigami don't exist in this world, otherwise he would have seen them by now. This was something that needed to be watched, closely.


	7. Chapter 7

This chapter will be a flaskback of sorts. In other words it will be the chapter that shows what happened on the night of the Kyuubi attack on Konoha. Should've been the prologue I know, I just really didn't think about it and now here we are. Plus it kinda links up with the thought that Urahara had about Ichigo/Menma's hollow half.

Sub chapter number one…GO!

* * *

Minato Namikaze couldn't be happier. He was the hokage just like he always wanted to be, had a beautiful wife and two lovely children that had just been brought into the world. But now that was all going to hell since his wife, Kushina Uzumaki had kinda grabbed his arm and cracked a few bones in it even while he was trying to maintain the seal on her abdomen that kept the beast within at bay, he could've sworn he saw some red chakra leak out, however was reassured when the seal began to tighten again. He never noticed the slight burn marks on his hands from the red chakra. Although that was a problem it wasn't the worst problem, it only made the worst problem even worse.

There in front of him and his panting wife who looked up in a strained and tired fashion to try and see what all the commotion was about was a masked man in a black cloak who held both of his children having effortlessly slipped through the guard out front and incapacitating all the nurses in the room. Quite the feat if you think about it, especially so considering all the guard was in the anbu. But even so, the man had still slipped through the defences of the village and anbu guards undetected, and was now holding two of the things he held most precious to him and would protect with his life.

"Step away from the Jinchuriki." The masked man commanded while motioning to the fact that he had Minato's children in his hands…both hands were occupied… _"Ah shit."_ Was the thought that came from the masked mans mind as he saw Minato dash forwards having obviously recognized the fault in the way he was handling the children. Thinking quickly the man tossed both children into the air in opposite directions, rapidly throwing explosive note tags onto the cloth that bound the two within never noticing the small brown eyes that watched as everything in the room happened.

Minato ran for the blond haired child first having already managed to throw a marking kunai in the direction of the other child. Minato grabbed the blonde haired boy hastily and proceeded to teleport to the other orange haired boy through the kunai he had thrown and instantly left the room through another teleportation to some abandoned training grounds barely avoiding the shuriken that had been thrown in his direction at the last possible second.

Minato was relieved he had managed to catch both children before they hit the ground not having managed to fail as their parent yet. He was cut short from his small victory however when a hissing sound came from underneath the blankets. Minato's eyes widened as he grasped the ends of the cloth on both boys ripping them off in one swift movement and grabbed the boys once again before teleporting back home to where he was sure his children would be safe until the matter had been sorted out.

"You just wait here, Menma," Minato said looking to the orange haired boy on his left placing him in the bed that was laid out noting that the boys eyes were open in curiosity while he feebily grabbed at the collar around Minato's neck, "and you too Naruto." Minato looked over to the blonde who seemed to be sleeping peacefully making Minato chuckle a little to himself noting that he might be the lazier of the two and how carefree children were. "I'll be back soon."

Minato perked up a bit and turned around to see the eye of the orange haired child watching him, unmoving and attentive. That was…strange. Minato just smiled back at the boy before vanishing leaving two small children on a bed, one of which just stared at the ceiling and didn't make a sound as though thinking silently.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Kushina yelled at the masked man while she remained tied by her wrists by chakra seals that held her in place to prevent her from moving or escaping.

"I," the man said pausing a little "have waited many years for this day…a day where I would be able to extract the Kyuubi from you and use it's power to destroy Konoha…and that day is today because you," he said pointing at Kushina "had children brought forth into this world, the seal restraining the Kyuubi is weaker than ever now, and I will not miss my chance." the man finished before he looked at Kushina in the eyes with his sharingan. Red chakra spewed forth from her body as the Kyuubi struggled even harder than before to release itself of the chains that held it in confinement because the man willed it to do so.

Finally the beast burst forth from Kushina's body and she collapsed to the ground coughing and wheezing as the Kyuubi let out a mighty roar into the distance. The Kyuubi stood in all it's power and brilliance, the claws on it's feet scarring the earth it stood on and looked around for the man and now it's temporary master that had freed it from it's cage.

"I'm amazed that you're still alive," the masked man said looking over the downed woman, "the host usually dies when the beast is extracted, the Uzumaki really are something else, to survive an extraction and just after childbirth and two at that, it's definitely impressive." The man remarked showing some signs of being impressed. "However that will not help you here, not now. Kyuubi," he said casually waving his arm in Kushina's general direction, "finish her of."

Obeying the commands of it's master the Kyuubi turned around and struck out with a ferocious roar attempting to flatten the woman where she lay on the ground. When the beasts claw collided with the rock Kushina was on it instantly shattered and was ground to dust under the enormous strength of the kyuubi.

The masked man sighed and tilted his head a little while turning it to look at the man that had just stepped in in time to save the red headed woman from her demise. The forth stood in his casual ninja attire on a patch of grass on the same bit of land as the masked man with Kushina in his arms held bridal style. "Is this going to become a common occurance? 'Cause I sure hope not." The masked man sighed.

"Who knows? Maybe it will." Minato replied with venom in his voice clearly at the fact that not only had this man before him almost killed his children mere minutes ago, he had also released the kyuubi and almost killed his beloved in the process.

Kushina was barely awake at the time yet she could still see the blurry outline of the yellow hair that was on the head of the man that had rescued her. Recognizing the figure and the warmth that came from them she grabbed onto him with her left hand, the other hand already pressed against the body that held her.

Minato cast a worried glance at Kushina who appeared to be barely conscious before looking back to the masked man with a critical eye and vanishing once again.

"Better get to work then." The only remaining personnel voiced to himself and turned away from the site that he had used to extract the beast and left through a black void that appeared on the mans will. "Things are getting busy, especially for that orange headed child, that was no child."

* * *

Minato flashed into his home and placed Kushina next to the two children that lay on the bed. Menma was still awake and looked up at Minato who strangely enough had managed to shift himself to the end of the bed and almost fall off, at least to the eyes of Minato. Menma himself was cursing inside his head that he'd been caught trying to explore his new environment as Minato picked him up softly and placed him on Kushina's other side where he was instantly pulled into a hug while Minato pulled up the covers to keep them warm.

Minato moved away from the bedside and went to pick up a white haori with the word 'forth' emblazoned on the back before moving back over to check one last time on the three. "I'll be back soon."

"You better." Kushina managed to mutter weakly looking up towards Minato who just smiled lightly and left the three not noticing the worry that came to Kushina's face as she thought about how this would all play out for her family and the village included. Things were not going to end without a fight.

PAGE BREAK

The masked man was now just outside the walls of Konoha preparing to perform a summoning jutsu to bring the Kyuubi into the village and destroy it.

"**Summoning Jutsu**" the man said performing the necessary hand signs and slamming his hand into the ground. The area was instantly covered in a cloud of smoke as the Kyuubi came into existence underneath the man who summoned it.

"Ahh now…let's begin, Kyuubi destroy the village" the man commanded and so the Kyuubi began it's attack on the village. As soon as it did though the man hopped off the beast and left to take care of some unfinished business.

* * *

Where was he? That man with the mask, where was he?

Minato had been searching for the man for quite some time now and had yet to find the man. He hadn't had the time to notify anyone of the danger, however he was sure that someone would eventually notice…hopefully. One last place of where the man could be came to mind and however unlikely he tried and vanished once again to the training grounds that he had taken both Naruto and Menma to, to remove the cloths that had the paper tags stuck to them.

* * *

The masked man felt oddly reminiscent of when he himself had been a part of Konoha. He had loved the village, but now it was just an eyesore reminding him of painful memories that were best left buried. He sighed and silently triumphed that he would be finally rid of the village and had the key to the next stage in his plan…well, one of the keys, there were still eight others after all.

Feeling a slight disturbance in the wind pressure of the surrounding environment the man's eye turned from its regular sharingan state into that of a mangekyo sharingan allowing himself to become intangible for the briefest of moments as a hand that was grasping a kunai passed straight through him having attempted to sever his spinal column in two.

The man made a tutting noise and raised his hand wagging his index finger as he turned around to face the forth hokage. "Now, now, there's no need to get violent." Only to receive a raised eyebrow in return as the forth stood his ground some five to ten metres back. "Well maybe there is, I mean I do still have to take care of an entire village, and that isn't something that will take care of itself."

"Give up the Kyuubi." Minato ordered sternly.

"No." the man replied, "I don't think I will. You see, I have been waiting for this moment for quite some time and I won't allow it to go to waste right here and now. So fight me if you wish to regain what once was yours." He said motioning for Minato to attack first.

"Fine, we'll have it your way then." Minato muttered as he dashed forward again trying to hit the man once again only to end with the same result as he went straight through and out the other side of the currently untouchable man.

"No need to be so feisty." The man said dropping a length of chain out behind himself that appeared to be attached to his wrists by black cuffs effectively joining the two of them together. The man looked a little idiotic at the moment and one would question his mental state as he began leaning from side to side, his hands raised in front of him. If it weren't for the situation at hand Minato would have done so.

Dashing forwards once again Minato expected a slightly different result seeing as the chain was supposed to do something and the man might not phase out again. He was proven wrong as they ran at each other and phased right through each other, at least until their heels separated and the chain became solid tugging on Minato slightly but not capturing him completely. Minato quickly jumped backwards kicking off of the ground avoiding the chain.

Leaping away from each other once again Minato pulled out one of his special marked kunai and just as the other man began running forwards he threw it before bolting after it himself while charging a swirling ball of chakra in his hand, an unknown technique to the man before him as he simply ignored it and kept going. As the two approached at much faster speeds than before Minato kept his eyes on the positioning of the kunai as it began phasing through the mask of the man and then his head. Pretty soon the tip of the kunai was beginning to protrude from the back of his head and the masked mans hands were reaching up towards Minato.

"I…"

As the two got closer and closer the only visible eye behind the mans mask narrowed looking at the forth in hate for reasons unknown.

"…win." The masked man finished saying having his thumbs touching the haori of the hokage while his forehead was only milimetres away from the others. His eyes instantly widened when the final part of the kunai phased through the back of his head and the forth disappeared. Almost as soon as he disappeared a great impact was felt in the middle of his back instantly flooring him causing a fairly decent sized crater to appear as well as spider web like cracks that emanated out from the masked man as he tried to make sense of what just happened. He was sure he got him, but he didn't…right, the kunai. He'd forgotten about that and become careless.

Looking at his arm he noticed that he was almost no longer in no shape to fight as his arm began to dissolve into a puddle of goo, which begged the question of who this man really was. He couldn't possibly be Madara Uchiha, he was supposed to be dead after all, so much for that train of thought.

"Now where is the Kyuubi?" Minato said standing a couple of metres away from the downed man.

"That's a different command than before and one that I will happily oblige." The man said standing and dusting himself off casually, not caring for the large missing piece of clothing on his back. "It's back at the village of course, making this world a better place."

Minato seemingly teleported and appeared right before the masked man making him gasp and eyes widen in recognition as seal markings spread over the front of his body from where Minato had firmly planted his hand on the mans chest.

"A contract sealing jutsu!" the masked man exclaimed his only visible eye widening slightly stepping back slightly. Suddenly the man's eye narrowed and he stepped back again before speaking with conviction that worried Minato. "No matter, there is more than one way to take over the world after all. And I will have the Kyuubi."

With that said the man vanished into another swirling void disappearing to who knows where.

* * *

Minato now stood atop the hokage monuments and saw the destruction that the beast called the kyuubi had caused. It wasn't much considering what the beast could do and how much it had actually destroyed of the village. The thing looked more happy playing with it's food because it just lazily swiped it's claws about seeing it the ninjas attacking were good enough to play a game of dodge the claw.

Minato cursed silently. "So you've taken notice of me have you." Minato said when the kyuubi looked up unhappily distracted from it's little game and saw Minato. The kyuubi began to growl and lowered it's stance alerting all those who were fighting it to turn their heads and see the forth atop one of the hokage faces.

The Kyuubi opened its mouth and air began to swirl around as red and blue chakra balls began to form and spiral together creating a hulking purple mass of chakra. Instantly Minato began performing hand seals and placed his hands in front of him to stop the giant ball of chakra.

"Oh no you don't." A voice sounded from behind Minato, the exact same voice of the masked man. As soon as that was said Minato was grabbed from behind and held in place. "You won't be helping that village of yours anytime soon."

It felt strange, a slight pulling at first but then Minato realised he was being sucked into a void of some kind as he saw out of the corner of his vision a black swirling mass next to the mans eye that seemed to be the source of the problem. Thinking quickly Minato was just able to pull himself out in time with the use of his speed and get away from the man. Reappearing some distance away Minato looked back o see the man retreating, unable to currently take Minato head on.

"Hm, may as well go, I'm no longer needed at the moment. I just hope I've given enough time for the Kyuubi to kill him." The masked man said to himself hoping that the kyuubi would be enough to take down the forth hokage after it has it's little show down.

Having seen the forth hokage vanish and reappear a little closer the kyuubi repositioned it's head and fired the mass of chakra at incredible speeds causing Minato's eyes to widen as he had to start performing the hand signs again because of the interference of the masked man. Rapidly churning out the seals even faster than before Minato was only able to just finish the last hand sign in time for the chakra ball to fall through the giant seal placed in the air, only mere metres away from his face as he could feel the intense heat and energy radiating from it.

Minato struggled to keep standing as strong winds pressed against him, only to die down once the chakra ball had been completely enveloped by the seal. Minato turned his head noticing a bright luminous light reveal itself in the distance. "For something so large, it has to be as far away as possible. I'm not to sure I have any other place of an equivalent distance for another one to be sent to."

Hearing the mighty Kyuubi roar in defiance that it's prey was not destroyed Minato jumped and threw another marked kunai just above the Kyuubi to where he teleported before biting his thumb and performing more hand signs. **"Summoning Jutsu."**

Immediately in a cloud of smoke a giant toad with a sword at it's hip appeared below Minato and slammed onto the top of the Kyuubi Making it's legs give way at the unexpected weight and crash into the ground. If one were close enough they would be able to hear the toad groan in complaint as it struggle to hold down the Kyuubi.

"I need you to hold him Gamabunta, just for a bit." Minato said as he yet again started going through hand seals._ "This is going to take a lot out of me since the amount of chakra needed is the amount in accordance with the object being transported."_

"Easier said than done." Gamabunta replied. "I can only hold him for a short while, you have to hurry it up whatever you're doing."

All around Ninjas began running in towards the downed kyuubi to try and defeat it, but all were surprised when it just vanished. Strangely enough though the toad Gamabunta was still there so all the ninja present looked towards his back to see if the forth hokage was still present but were shocked when he wasn't.

"Third hokage," an anbu said appearing next to the man, "do you have any idea where the forth might have taken the kyuubi?"

"N…" Hiruzen began but then noticed a large cloud of dust that suddenly picked up and obscured some of the moonlight. "Over there, hurry!" Hiruzen shouted and leaped into the forest towards the disaster in the making.

* * *

**"You'll pay for that fourth."** The Kyuubi began as it began to stand once again albeit very slowly. **"Even though I was under that mans control for a short while I enjoyed destroying that village of yours…huh"** the kyuubi paused and noticed that the forth hokage had disappeared. Hoping for the best the Kyuubi quickened it's pace only to grow miserable once again when the hokage reappeared nearby. Taking a glance the Kyuubi growled noticing the two children in his arms as well as the red headed woman that was his previous container.

"W-wh-what are y-you doing Minato?" Kushina questioned the blond haired man that held her closely with the two children by his side.

Placing Kushina on the ground Minato began breathing heavily and almost gave out from chakra exhaustion._ "I have to erect a barrier to hold back the Kyuubi for a bit to complete the ritual."_ Minato only noticed the red head in front of him speaking when she was on her hands and knees and tugged on Minato's sleeve. "Kushina, I have to seal it away."

As soon as the words left Minato's mouth Kushinas eyes opened wide in horror at what Minato was saying. He couldn't possibly do that to his own child could he? No! It just wasn't possible, he couldn't. "Why?" Kushina said voice broken.

"It can't be sealed back within you and the only option that we have at the moment is either our own children or one of the villages and I sincerely doubt that anyone would be willing to give their child up to the life of a jinchuriki." Minato replied. "Besides, with us here and each other they'll be strong and won't have to worry about being lonely."

Kushina was silent for a moment before she nodded her head and agreed with Minato. "Wait, what do you mean both of them? Can't you seal it entirely into just one of them?"

"No, it's not possible at the moment. They will have to share the burden." Minato said and rose with both of the children in the arms noticing the Kyuubi having fully regained it's bearings and was now looking down upon them growling.

"I'll hold him still." Kushina said noticing the growing look of apprehension, "I have enough chakra to hold him still for a while. Now hurry."

Minato nodded in reply and summoned two cradles where he lay his two children as Kushina let chakra chains burst forth from her back that plowed into the ground and burst forth right underneath the Kyuubi chaining each individual tail to the ground as well as his torso, arms, and legs.

* * *

Just outside the area where the main scene was unfolding two people stood, one on one side of the erected barrier and one on the other, out of sight and invisible to the other person. Hiruzen stood in his spot watching the scene and gasped silently in realisation of what Minato was going to attempt.

"He's going to try and seal the Kyuubi into his children to save Konoha." Hiruzen muttered briefly before the appearance of the anbu at his sides who only heard the last part. Looking ahead the anbu realised that Hiruzen said that the forth hokage was attempting to save Konoha.

Hiruzen tried to get closer to help Minato but was stopped when he walked right into a barrier that stopped him in his tracks. Looking around he could see several golden chains that were planted into the ground around the surrounding area. Those chains were probably the reason that there was a barrier in around the area of the Kyuubi and were most likely being used to contain it.

* * *

The Kyuubi roared and struggled under the chains that rattled with the movement of the beast but did not budge. **"I won't be sealed again!"** The kyuubi said straining its neck to snap the chains that bound it to the ground. If he could just turn his head he might be able to escape. The Kyuubi froze when it felt something terribly wrong happening and strangely enough the chains around it became looser. Once he lifted his head he saw it. He had grown smaller; the only evidence being that there were his tiny claws inside the footprints of those much larger than his own.

"Eight signed seal complete." Were the words that came from Minato's mouth causing the Kyuubi's chakra to flare violently and cause a powerful wind sweep throughout the area.

The Kyuubi was now looking at the child that had half of himself sealed inside it. Seeing the baby's blonde hair only enraged it further as it realised that not only was it being sealed again but it was to the child of the one who had previously contained him. **"No! Release me now scum and let me tear you to shreds!"**

"I'm afraid I can't do that. You see, your too dangerous to be left alone." Minato replied breathing deeply, he was almost out of chakra. "Now for the last seal." Minato looked at the orange haired baby who strangely enough was still awake and was not crying even though it had a look of fear on it's face. "That's right Menma, be strong." Minato said comfortingly to the baby. "**Eight signed seal**" Minato said placing a hand on the childs abdomen beginning the sealing process only to be shocked to the core when the seal was rejected as soon as the Kyuubi's chakra touched it.

**"Haha, forth, it seems you will not be sealing me within that child."** The Kyuubi said in triumph beginning to shake the chains again forming a pleased grin on his face when the chains began to stretch and snap.

"No…"Minato muttered softly, "Why? Why isn't it working?" he said trying the seal again only to be met with the same results after a repeated attempt. There was only one way now and Minato knew that he wouldn't come out of this alive if he did. Strengthening his resolve he performed more hand signs and said "**Death reaper seal.**" Forming behind him in a ghostly appearance was a creature with a tanto in it's mouth, red beads on it's left hand and horns sprouting from it's head, while the skin was an unnatural purple.

The Kyuubi's eyes widened when he heard this and doubled his efforts to break loose of his confinement in the chains that held him still.

"Minato," was the soft voice heared from Kushina as she turned her head tears threatening to spill from her eyes already knowing that he had completed the hand signs and was awaiting the final moments when the shinigami would take his and the Kyuubi's soul, "why?"

"There is no other way to seal the Kyuubi at the moment Kushina and if we let it run rampant any longer the village will cease to exist. I'm sorry." Minato explained.

Watching them the Kyuubi had released one of its arms and was now capable of moving it freely. Seeing the blond boy it came to the conclusion that if he could at least kill the blonde he would be able to escape and kill the forth before he could complete his jutsu. Raising his claw the Kyuubi swept outwards with a mighty roar hoping to impale the baby and kill it instantly. What it did not expect however was for Kushina to leap into the way and allow it to impale herself and slow the claw down. The Kyuubi was not stopped though and continued forwards, closing in on the child.

Minato watched in horror at what his wife had just done and would have done so himself had he not needed to be facing the Kyuubi to seal it in himself. Minato looked behind himself and felt strangely relieved when saw the shinigami reach forwards and plunge it's hand through Minato and grab the Kyuubi's shoulder in its cold grasp.

The Kyuubi paled, if it could really do that, when it felt the sudden sinking feeling as it was forcefully dragged to Minato to be sealed within the shinigami for all eternity. Well at least its other half could terrorize the village and the world when things came to it, which was a relief. But still, for this half to be sealed away within the shinigami was unacceptable, he'd find a way out, he'd make sure of it.

Kushina collapsed to the ground face first as blood painted the ground because the claw was no longer stopping the blood flow instantly releasing the barrier in which all the current people were held captive. Minato just stumbled over to Kushina on his last breaths and died with his hand outstretched to Kushina never quite making it over, his hand only being a mere few centimetres away.

* * *

The man on the opposite side of the clearing to the third hokage wore his cloak and mask as an unseen scowl made itself present. This would cause a problem later on. He would surely be pursued to the ends of the earth if he took one of the children, especially that which held the Kyuubi. For now he'd just make a bargain with the snake man and feed his curiosity to buy him over to his little group that was forming. Vanishing in a black swirl the man made his way over to the little broken family.

* * *

The third hokage took a moment to realise the barrier was down but when he did he realised it was too late as a man dressed in black appeared out of thin air and hauled up the body of Kushina Uzumaki and placed her over his shoulder before vanishing yet again. Who were they and why did they do that?

It didn't matter now, only that the forth hokage's body was present and so were the two live children. If the man had taken either the small blonde or the forth hokage they would have had a problem seeing that the baby had half the Kyuubi sealed inside him and the forth had a possible key to retrieving the other half. But still they would have to send a small search party so that she could have a proper burial.

* * *

In dark murky swamps the masked man stepped through a camouflaged doorway and made his down torch lit steps, rocky walls and ground making up the pathway in which he took to approach the unseemly man that stood at the other end of a hallway.

"What do you want now?" the man hissed, "I hope you haven't come begging to recruit me again, because like last time I will still say no…unless you have some compensation to make up for it, and for that to work it has to be something valuable."

"Yes Orochimaru," the masked man nodded excitedly putting up a façade, "Tobi has something for you so you will join the master's group."

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow, "Oh really now," he said slightly interested in what the man before him had to offer, "What might this be? Hm."

"Oh good," the now child like man said clapping his hands together, "you want to see the present Tobi brought you. Although Tobi must warn you, Master said it was one of a kind and that you shouldn't use it too quickly otherwise we have no more presents to give." He said almost sadly.

"Ok, now spit it out. I want to see this gift before I make any decisions." Orochimaru growled growing slightly impatient as he started to wonder why he hadn't killed the man the first time he met him.

"Ta daaaa." Tobi waved his hands about and Kushina appeared behind him. Spinning about he pulled the still bloody Kushina in front of him to present it to Orochimaru. Noting the wide eyed expression Orochimaru was giving him Tobi continued, "Master thought you were looking for an Uzumaki so he thought why not Kushina Uzumaki. She had the ability to use chakra chains and extremely good health. She is a prime experiment for what you have been researching, eternal life and special jutsu! The longevity of an Uzumaki may be the key you have been looking for so master expects to be getting quite a few good years of your service in return for such a pretty thing."

"How long ago did she die?" Orochimaru asked confusing Tobi slightly.

"If Tobi remembers correctly it waaaaas abouuuuut…hmm… five minutes ago!" Tobi said holding up five fingers.

"Then give her here and I'll join your group." Orochimaru snapped before grabbing the dead Kushina, yanking her out of Tobi's hands and dragging her off to one of the chambers hidden within his lair unable to see the large grin forming behind Tobi's mask.

A few minutes later Tobi had been exploring the confines of the lair and had made himself at home on one of the spinning chairs before a computer and sat there saying 'whee' as he spun about on the chair. Seemingly oblivious to his surrounding environment Tobi yelped when the chair stopped spinning and he was met with Orochimaru's vicious glare.

"What are you still doing here?" Orochimaru growled yanking Tobi up by the back of his cloak and holding him up in the air while his legs dangled and flailed about forcing Orochimaru to let go of him.

"Tobi was just wondering why you needed to know how long Kushina had been dead for." Tobi said innocently. "Master wants to know as well," Tobi added, "because master wants to know if it will have any interference with any missions he gives you."

"I'm reviving Kushina Uzumaki, because as you said she only died about five minutes before I placed her in the tank, therefore I should be able to get more than just a few experiments out of her. I'll also be able to see her body working and what makes her tick. This may have a slight interference with missions but very little." Orochimaru explained reluctantly to the childish man. "Satisfied?"

Receiving a nod from Tobi, Orochimaru once again grabbed Tobi by the back of his cloak and dragged him along the ground and up the stairs to the entrance before throwing him out into the marshes. "Good riddance." Were the final words heard from Orochimaru as he turned around and headed back inside his cave to continue his experiments.

Tobi just waited for the man to disappear before getting up and wiping of the dirt and sludge that caked his uniform growling to himself. "I hate it when he treats me like that."


	8. Chapter 8

Opening her eyes the prisoner winced at the bright light that entered them. Taking a moment to adjust to her new surroundings she opened her eyes more slowly this time. Looking around where she was she felt oddly dazed and confused, her mind still hazy from when…she…was impaled by the Kyuubi!

_"Wha-where am I?"_ Kushina thought frantically as she finally noticed the cool liquid flowing over her skin. She felt oddly weightless as she floated in the light blue liquid. Angling her eyes downward she could see a clear mask over her face providing fresh oxygen to her and taking away all the excess as she breathed in and out trying to calm her nerves. Raising her hands Kushina looked at them and noted how clean they were, they were no longer covered in blood or dirt, only old and almost invisible scars from her ninja career remained.

_Tap-tap-tap._ The noised echoed in the tank.

Kushina looked back up and through the blue hue of the liquid and saw a blurred face looking straight back at her before heading off to a nearby work station with a glowing screen of some sort, presumably a computer. Ignoring the person Kushina looked back down on herself and noted that not only was she completely naked but the place where the Kyuubi had impaled her had almost completely closed over leaving a nasty round scar in her flesh. Looking back up Kushina reached out with her left hand and found the casing that held her within and pressed her palm against the glass and began wondering how long she had been there exactly before retracting her hand and placing it back at her side.

Looking back outside the tank she floated in Kushina studied what she could of the person who sat at the backless chair tapping away at the keys pausing intermittently to supposedly to read data off of the screen. They looked to have long black hair that reached down past his shoulders and to the middle of his back. A purple rope with two loops out the back was bound around their waist over the top of what seemed to be rags that were conveniently made to fit their form.

While she continued to study him she noticed that the man seemed to turn off the computer screen and head back over to her. When he reached her he looked to his side where he tapped a few buttons next to the tank she was in and tapped a few of them causing the fluid floating around her to drain into vents near her feet, her hair suddenly pulled down from its suspended state in the fluid. As the fluid continued to drain her feet neared the bottom of the tank and she began to stand on her feet and the fluid drained past her face allowing her vision to clear. What she saw caused her to pale considerably.

Staring into the eyes of her captor Kushina wasn't sure whether or not to be happy that she was alive for the person before her was the missing ninja and one of the legendary Sanin, Orochimaru. Why he was just outside the tank and staring at her, she wasn't too sure about that but she was sure she'd find out soon enough. Looking at the mans mouth she saw it move as though speaking to her but only heard muffled sounds because of the liquid still in her ears. Shaking her head slightly the liquid cleared and she began to hear Orochimaru's voice.

Orochimaru looked at her with a slight frown on his face realising that Kushina hadn't heard him and repeated what he said to her. "You are now here in my care for my own personal interests of finding new jutsu and other possible outcomes of improving my body. Since you are the only known Uzumaki left that is capable of using chakra chains I will do my best to keep you alive and in one piece. If you do not listen to me your chakra network won't be the only thing you are incapable of using."

Kushina reached up to remove the mask on her face that had seemingly released its seal to her face the moment the liquid had finished leaving and asked the man, "How?"

Orochimaru just snarled in response before responding, "I don't know, maybe if you get the chance you should ask the one that brought you here. As for the healing you can thank the regeneration tank for that, it only heals wounds, diseases are impossible for it to cure." Orochimaru explained having obvious hate for whoever brought her here, the venom in his voice showing that.

Kushina collapsed to her knees and began crying silently to herself deterring Orochimaru from staying with her any longer as he left to go complete some more research while Kushina completely healed and dressed herself with the simple gown she was provided with in the now locked room.

* * *

(Present: Unknown location)

"What should we do with her?" a stoic male voice said as he looked over the red headed woman. A face he had once forgotten looked back not recognising the onyx black eyes that stared at her with a little shock held within.

"I don't know, so don't ask me Itachi." another male answered the first shouldering a large bat like object even though the wielder would define it as a blade. Covered in bandages from tip to hilt the large object could be defined as any matter of weapon until someone saw it and even then they would question how the man could lift a thing so easily.

"The snake man betrayed us because he deemed his interests to be more valuable than what he signed up for. As his punishment we have taken away one of his prized experiments and are going to keep her in a cell until she becomes of use to us." A third male broke into the conversation, his commanding tone silencing the others and making them obey. "For now, head back to the village hidden in the rain and we will make our final decisions there." The voice of the third man cut off his end of the communication jutsu and silence reigned.

Itachi glanced back at the slightly confused and lifeless eyes, and smiled somewhat even though one would hardly define the slight movement of his lips as a smile since it faltered and set back down into a thin line before a frown set into his face. How did she look as young as she did? It was like she hadn't aged a day since he last saw her. It could be the result of Orochimaru's experiments, which was always a possibility. Had he discovered his so called immortality inside the young looking woman and ended up having said discovery affect her too? If what he thought were true it would only be a matter of time until he did, but even then he wouldn't be impossible to kill. He would need a similar or the same jutsu as Izangi to achieve that. Looking back ahead he began to walk until his partner began speaking to him

"Are you not carrying her Itachi?" the blue skinned man said allowing the large blade he held to attach to the strap he wore on his back.

Itachi looked at his teammate before speaking, "Were you not going to Kisame?"

Kisame shook his head in response, "Nope, don't want to. I've got Samehada to deal with and unless you want her to become Samehada's lunch, which the leader won't be very impressed about I suggest you carry her." With that Kisame began walking ahead.

* * *

(Konoha)

Urahara continued to look over the three before him his eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he tried to understand how Menma had such dark chakra within him, possibly from his darker side if it was even there. He could only formulate a few theories but all of them inconclusive as he would never be able to truly find out as Menma probably didn't know when it happened and he hadn't seen it for himself nor were there any records he could access with any data on the occurrence.

Slowly but surely over the course of the next few hours the three slowly woke up and groggily ate what little they had brought with them. When they finally finished eating they all turned to Urahara to hear the results of their 'little' test.

"So, I'm sure you're all waiting to hear the results 'cause I sure am yay!" Urahara said excitedly raising his hands up above his head cheering. He slowly lowered his hands and slumped his shoulders, "You guys are no fun." Urahara whined before sitting up straight again looking at them all in the eyes. "You all pass! Yay!" Urahara said getting excited again before reverting to a blank face, "Barely."

* * *

(Three days later)

"Alright, on to chakra natures! A subject to get excited about." Urahara said making the others go wide-eyed. "That's what I thought." Urahara said seeing the reactions he got from the three. "First of all, you have to channel your chakra into these slips of paper." Urahara reached into the vest he wore and pulled out three small rectangular sheets of white paper and handed each student an individual piece.

Shaolin was the first to channel her chakra into her slip of paper and saw it split down the middle before turning to dust. Raising the remaining dust before her eyes she wondered what it meant. Turning to Urahara she spoke, "What does it mean?" Shaolin said holding out the slip of paper to Urahara.

"Wait for the others first." Urahara said motioning for Shaolin to wait who sighed and agreed to wait until the others had finished learning what their chakra natures were.

Hinata was the next to channel her chakra into her slip of paper. It took a slight moment before the paper crinkled and became soaking wet. It was pretty obvious what Hinata's chakra nature was.

Finally Menma Channeled his chakra into the slip of paper he had causing it to crinkle and burn up leaving nothing but ashes and a soggy corner behind.

"Well," Urahara said a little surprised with the results, "you all have at least one of the chakra natures that's for sure. Alright Shaolin, you have both wind and earth natures, I can teach you how to control your earth nature chakra but you'll have to find some help for your wind nature chakra. Hinata, yours is water as I'm sure you've already figured out as well as lightening and I can help you there as well. As for you Menma I can't help you as much as I am not adept with either fire or lightening chakra, sorry. Water chakra as I said before I can help you with."

Menma shrugged a little when he heard this and thought that it was strange for him to have water chakra. He did hate the rain and rain was made of water. In his old life it would rain or become flooded in his inner world whenever he was sad or in deep despair. Perhaps that was what gave him the affinity for water. Either way it didn't matter, he just had to grow stronger to protect everyone.

* * *

(Three months later)

"I thought you said we'd be going on a mission." Shaolin grumbled into the microphone as she hid in some bushes trying no to alert the cat the walked through the clearing before her.

"You are only a Genin Shaolin-san," Urahara replied, "it is to be expected that you will not be going on any life threatening missions yet. All the missions you wish to proceed on with are above your rank. You will first need to become a chunin before you can take many C to B-rank missions."

"This is a D-rank…" Menma trailed off before starting up again, "and as the Genin we are we should be able to take at least a C-rank mission. Not another D-rank."

"Yeees, well, I have no choice in that matter. Besides, just because you two may be ready does not mean that your other team mate is, right Hinata-san." Urahara chimed over the radio link.

"A-ah y-yes." Hinata quietly whispered back.

Hinata had to admit that her strength as a ninja had grown tremendously over the past few weeks of being under Urahara's tutelage. Well compared to how fast she use to progress anyway. The training at first was just simple speed training. When she first asked why tag, Urahara just smiled before beginning the exercise making her run off without getting an answer in return. The answer was soon obvious though. Trying to run away from a live target was much more tiring and challenging than just going out for a simple run. There was a catch though, you had to wear ankle weights while the one who was chasing you didn't. After they caught up to you though they would fight until one or the other could no more, even going so far as to force the other back onto their feet even if their legs were giving out beneath them.

She had learnt to somewhat manipulate her water chakra and allowed it to combine with her clan's specialized taijutsu allowing for even deadlier precision strikes than before. Her speed and strength had to increase drastically to be able to catch up to her teammates and so she was often pitted in regular spars with one or the other to allow her to try even harder to just keep up with them. Over all her progress led her to believe that she may in fact surpass her cousin Neji someday, but not yet, not yet.

"Alright," Menma's voice came through the earpiece, "target is on the move to your location Hinata. When ever you're ready."

Hinata nodded in acknowledgement knowing that they were still all within visual range of each other and prepared to move. Watching the cat stalk along the ground she saw the cats ears perk up at a slight noise and turn it's head away from her. Now!

Leaping out of the bush as silently as she could, the cat turned it's head yet again at hearing the grass rustle under her feet. It was too late though as Hinata had pounced atop the cat and managed to grab it by it's main body before it could escape. Hinata was about to pick the cat up before it began thrashing about in her grip attempting to scratch her whenever possible. That however was stopped when Urahara walked over and injected some kind of clear liquid into the cat. Suddenly everyone turned their heads to Urahara.

"What?" Urahara whined, "It's not dead if that's what you're worried about. I just injected a muscle relaxant to keep it from thrashing about until we at least get it to the hokage tower where Tora's owner will be waiting for us."

The others just face palmed.

* * *

(Ten minutes later)

"…and I want a harder mission than working at a farm!" a voice screeched from inside the hokage office.

"Who was that?" Shaolin asked shuddering at the thought of meeting the whining, most probably a Genin, on the other side of the door that led to the Hokage office.

Menma just shrugged and knocked on the door three times to get the attention of whoever was inside before walking in without waiting for consent.

"Menma!" Shaolin said yanking back on the collar Menma's T-shirt causing him to choke for the briefest of moments before he was released and was able to look into the room he barged into.

There looking back with a seemingly amused expression was a Jonin with silver hair wearing a mask covering most of his face as well as his headband, which covered his left eye. His hands were casually placed in his pants pockets the moment he saw Shaolin, hiding the little orange book he was reading not a moment ago.

Standing next to him were three Genin: Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. It was probably forecast to be the loudest and most annoying team ever made at the ninja academy. The loud and most brash knuckle headed ninja in the world, the loudest of all pink haired screaming banshees in existence, and last of all the brooding Uchiha that didn't give a damn about most of the things his teammates did.

"Yo." Menma waved casually to the people in the room earning a face palm from the old man sitting behind a desk while donning the hokage triangular hat (don't know what it's called if it really has a name and don't care). He was like another Kakashi, only a child.

"Hey squirt." Kakashi replied looking at the orange haired boy.

Nodding his head in recognition towards the man Menma said in turn, "Cyclops." Earning a painful chop to the back of his neck courtesy of Shaolin causing him to stumble forwards a few steps. "Hey!" Menma whined, "What was that for?"

"You know what." Shaolin replied twitching slightly as she heard Menma's brother snicker at the nickname Menma had pinned on his Jonin instructor. Hearing no reply and only seeing a confused look on Menma's face Shaolin sighed and gave up…Shaolin gave up…strange.

Observing the conversation from just outside the door Urahara decided to go inside the already crowded room and carefully placed a sedated cat on top of a stack of paper work going unnoticed by the people in the room because of the current ongoing conversation, except from the hidden Anbu who just watched in amusement as though the circus was here. "Well, we completed the mission." Urahara began after having stepped back to where his Genin were.

Turning away from the finished conversation Hiruzen faced Urahara who had a devilish smirk on his face. That wasn't a good sign. "Good…" Hiruzen paused in confusion not seeing the cat, "where's the ca-aaaa..." Hiruzen trailed off seeing the sleeping feline atop a pile of paperwork.

"Don't worry it's still sedated." Urahara said offhandedly waving his hand as to give the all clear.

"You what!" Hiruzen replied in shock looking at the crazed man in front of him.

Urahara only tried to look as innocent as possible before pointing at Menma accusing the young Genin of having sedated the fire Dyamo's wife's cat. "It was him I swear."

"Hat'n'clogs did it. But I have to admit it was a pretty good idea. One moose tranquilizer and it was out like a light." Menma said clicking his fingers for emphasis not caring for the wide eye looks he was receiving and deflecting to Urahara who began to sweat nervously. "Don't worry, it isn't dead if that's what your thinking. Just in a deep sleep."

"More like a coma." Shaolin said adding in her own part smirking, knowing how bad an image she must be painting on Urahara. "It won't wake up for at least a fortnight."

"Ok, that's enough now, hush hush. Shoo." Urahara said waving the two Genin back to where Hinata stood. Turning back to the Hokage Urahara smiled sheepishly to the man who stared back with a disapproving expression on his face.

"Kakashi would you so kindly take the six Genin out for a while. I need to discuss something with Urahara." Hiruzen said seriously making Kakashi raise his only visible brow before complying and walking out the door with six Genin.

* * *

"Alright, since I've got you guys as well for a while why don't we go do some training and see where we all fit against each other." Kakashi said making Naruto erupt in a cheer, Sakura did so as well although to a little less of the extent Naruto went to while Sasuke muttered inaudibly. _"Hopefully it'll encourage more teamwork, force them to train to catch up to this so called elite squad, and less fighting so I have more time to read."_ He thought, unable to get the last few lines for the book out of his head.

* * *

Hearing the door close Hiruzen motioned for the Anbu present to leave as well before soundproofing the room around them with a Jutsu. "I'm sure you realise the importance of the team you are training Urahara so I'll skip right to the point. Why are they still acting like children?"

"They still have time to act like it. Let them while they still can." Urahara said knowing what future plans were laid out for the team of prodigies.

"I know, and I feel very, very bad for doing something that Danzo would probably do without a second thought. All I want is for them to be prepared for what comes ahead. They will be meeting up with Itachi Uchiha after all." Hiruzen stated.

"I am well aware of that fact and I know that Shaolin and Menma especially Menma will be up to the job, it might be best if he were the only one to go in fact." Urahara said to Hiruzen surprising him slightly.

"Why do you say that?"

"If it's to protect others, especially those that are close to him, he'll do pretty much anything. That's part of the reason I want him to develop a strong bond between his teammates. The other, is just so he can actually have friends, he doesn't exactly gain the most friends a person could have but the ones he does get tend to be pretty good ones. I can tell just from seeing his reactions to Shaolin-san." Urahara said having analysed the slight quirks here and there.

Hiruzen sighed and rubbed his forehead. Reaching for his pipe he turned around and looked out one of the windows that encompassed as least half of the office. "Very well. I'll allow you to have the final say in who goes on the mission. I expect whomever this person you choose is able to pass the Chunin exams with relative ease because that is the deadline I am giving you to have this person ready. I trust you are capable of doing this."

_Riiiiiip._

What was that?

Turning his head back around Hiruzen could only stare in horror as the cat that had been sleeping atop the mound of paper work was now awake and playfully tearing it to pieces.

* * *

"Alright, first we'll start off with Hinata against Sakura." Kakashi said, his hands somehow still in his pockets, not having once left them on the way to training ground seven.

The training grounds here were drastically different to the rocky terrain that squad two had been training in. The wide-open areas meant that there was less cover for you or the enemy to get away. However the levels of agility needed in the rocky terrain was not needed as much here giving squad two the advantage. The use of speed, agility, and strength was probably one of the main aspects of squad two.

"Are you kidding? When we were in academy she was beneath me." Sakura said to Kakashi who noted the now crestfallen look Hinata was displaying thanks to Sakura's outburst.

Deciding to flip things on Sakura's head Kakashi noted the way she had said what she said and replied, "Yes, she _was_ beneath you." Kakashi looked at the now smirking and seemingly triumphant Sakura until the gears turned in her head and her eyes snapped open her grin turning into an angry scowl.

"Hey!" Sakura screeched.

Not wanting to wait and her some more outburst from the oink haired girl Kakashi lazily raised his left hand before dropping it, "Begin."

Sakura barely had any time to move as Hinata struck out with her left palm seemingly only passing harmlessly by until Sakura fell flat on her ass. Not wanting to get hit again Sakura rolled away and jumped to her feet barely missing another incoming strike.

"How did you do that?" Sakura questioned earing a confused look from Hinata.

"Haven't you begun learning chakra natures yet?" Hinata replied with a question of her own. "I simply melded what I could of my chakra with the water in the air and used it as a bit of extra range. It's not very effective yet as you can see because I've only been training for two weeks with it, but with a bit more time I should get the hang of it."

"Huh?!" Sakura drawled out stupidly not quite understanding until a sudden thought clicked in her head. Hinata had learnt her chakra elements. When had she done that? No stupid she just told you!

Kakashi's eye widened in slight surprise of the news, having not expected such early advances in Urahara's Genin squad towards chakra natures. Were their other skills really that great to be able to move onto chakra natures or was Urahara giving them an accelerated crash course of all the basics hoping they understood before letting them go and experiment. It certainly was a faster method than conventionally teaching them all one by one and allowed them to come up with new ideas but it was a very difficult concept to grasp, especially for young Genin.

Hinata came in again and struck forwards again, chakra charged at her finger tips and missed Sakura by a larger distance this time, Sakura having jumped far out of the way. Noticing the new action of caution Hinata sped up and blurred between the distance catching Sakura off guard again before jutting out her left palm into Sakura's gut releasing a wave of chakra propelling the pink haired girl across the grounds.

Hinata looked a little surprised herself when she hit Sakura with such ease. Surely her aching muscles from the days of training hadn't allowed her to improve this much over the time she had done Urahara's training.

Kakashi just narrowed his right eye slightly before peeling his headband off his left eye and opening it to reveal his sharingan. The others couldn't see it though as they were too enamored or concentrated with the fight at hand to notice. Looking at Hinata he could see the strain under which Hinata's body was going; torn muscles, partially opened first inner gate as though it were under constant pressure to release her muscles utmost capacity…and were those stress fractures. The training the Genin must be enduring must be far more intense than anything Gai has ever given to his Genin.

Sakura clambered to her feet once again and pulled out a kunai in reverse grip in her left hand freeing her right hand to help concentrate her chakra in her body, or what little she had compared to the rest of her team anyway. A little blood dribbled down her lip as it came out of her mouth and fear was evident in her eyes. She was confused and didn't know what to do.

Hinata however had slowly become more hardened as time passed by in her training sessions, not fearing to hit her opponent as much as she would normally, knowing that her teammates and Sensei could take it. She didn't think however how much of an effect it would have on other Genins, having thought that all Genin went through the same training. She had after all only received training from one Sensei other than those at the academy and at home so she never complained. Perhaps her training wasn't meant to be as harsh as it had been.

Running forwards once again Hinata nimbly dodged a kunai that Sakura lashed out with, watching it pass by her eyes as she shifted her head to the side before crouching underneath Sakura's outstretched arm and with rapid speed jabbed Sakura's elbow and sealed off a chakra point before using the other arm to strike another further up the arm. Hinata then used her momentum and Sakura's distraction from the pain to spin around Sakura's midsection ending up behind her before lashing out again striking both shoulders multiple times rendering them useless from the inability to provide more chakra to her limbs.

"Alright," Kakashi called out ending the match having covered his sharingan once again to keep it from the Genin, "that's enough." It was clear that Hinata had now easily surpassed Sakura with some mere months of training. It could be that she wasn't necessarily using her clans fighting style in the academy or the fact that she seemed more confident somehow than when he first saw the girl in the classroom before deciding to take a nap. She definitely had more experience, it could be seen in the way she avoided Sakura's somewhat clumsy strikes, compared to a Jonin, with ease.

"Can I go next Kakashi-Sensei?" Naruto asked loudly and enthusiastically at being able to combat some of the top students that came out of the academy.

Sasuke scowled in annoyance. How were they better than him, an Uchiha? It didn't make sense. Was it because of the training they were doing? Was it their Sensei? He needed the training, but somehow, he felt as though Kakashi would be teaching him some things of worth sooner or later, if not, he'd go to this Urahara person. From him he'd receive his training to kill Itachi.

"Yes alright Naruto," Kakashi said making Naruto cheer, "you can fiiiight, Shaolin…" Kakashi paused, "after Sasuke fights Menma."

Sasuke smirked as he stepped forwards watching Hinata help the pained Sakura over to the others. _"Stupid dobe."_ Sasuke thought as he saw the sulking Naruto at having to go last.

"You ready?" Menma asked hands in pockets as he strode out into the field now taking note of the small stream that ran nearby much to his disinterest. It wouldn't be needed to take care of Sasuke after all.

Sasuke snorted in response. Him needing to be asked if he was ready? What a joke. But nevertheless Menma allowed Sasuke the time to get into a readied crouching stance.

"Go." Was the only word that came out of Kakashi's mouth before Menma blurred out of existence causing Sasuke's eyes to visibly widen.

Sasuke frantically turned his head around to see a fist connect with his face to send him careening across the clearing before landing in the small stream of water.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes once again._ "Shunshin? That was a faster than normal shunshin jutsu, far faster. Then again maybe it isn't shunshin since there were no hand signs coupled with the move. Oh Urahara, what have you been teaching them?"_

Sasuke climbed out of the small stream over the rocky edge his cheek now purple and swollen, angry at his loss. How had he moved so fast? If he had his sharingan he would already be able to copy the move. Why must life be against him at the moment?

Kakashi turned to Naruto and saw the boy have a slightly sheepish face as he scratched the back of his head having seen how easily his brother had taken care of Sasuke. "You still want to fight?" Kakashi questioned Naruto.

"Nah, I'd like to but at the moment I can see that I'd easily get creamed by any of squad two." Naruto said making Kakashi raise an eyebrow. This was unusual.

"Hmm, oh well then I guess we'll have to say it's a loss to squad seven and a win to squad two." Kakashi sighed.

* * *

NOTE: wasn't so sure about this chapter and it still doesn't sit right with me but after going through it a couple of times I just decided to post it anyway.


End file.
